From Paris, Marseille or Villeurbanne, the candidates for the presidential election tried to convince the last undecided, this weekend, one week before the first round.
First and only meeting for Emmanuel Macron
The outgoing president had two hours to convince, during his only major campaign meeting, which took place at the Arena de La Défense, near Paris. “And one, and two, and five more years”, President Macron, chanted the crowd. Some 35,000 activists gathered around the favorite in the polls, slightly down in recent days, even if he remains in the lead with around 26% of the vote ahead of Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the National Rally, credited with around 20%. A study has shown for the first time that the RN candidate could win, if the margin of error is taken into account.
Emmanuel Macron has pleaded for the unity of the country facing “extremist danger”. “France is a bloc. We don’t sort, we don’t choose, we take it as it is!”he said. “The mobilization is now, the fight is now. It is the fight of progress against withdrawal, of patriotism and of Europe against nationalists.” In reference to the theory of the great replacement defended by Eric Zemmour, he wished “good luck to those who, faced with the return of empires and the challenges of the times, defend the great stunting”.
Eric Zemmour flirts with LR and plays football in Marseille
Traveling to Marseille, the former polemicist has called Republican voters that he considers “betrayed” by LR to vote for him rather than for the right-wing candidate Valérie Pécresse. “Republican voters have been betrayed for a very long time (…), do not get your vote wrong”he said, assuring that“by voting for Valérie Pécresse, they will vote Emmanuel Macron”.
The candidate then took part in an indoor football match at the ZS sports complex in Aix-en-Provence, created by football star Zinedine Zidane. In shorts and jersey, Mr. Zemmour started a match with local supporters before the game was abruptly stopped by center officials, unhappy with the presence of many cameras. “It was not the cameras that bothered but Eric Zemmour”lamented the entourage of the candidate.
At the same level as the ex-controversy in the polls (around 8.5 to 10%), Valérie Pécresse (LR) does not want “don’t give up” and is also counting on the meeting to be held on Sunday at Porte de Versailles in Paris, where the tenors Les Républicains will call on right-wing voters to mobilize behind her.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to play spoilsport
The rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon hopes to disrupt the game by beating Marine Le Pen in the first round, the latest polls crediting him with around 15-16% of the voting intentions on April 10. “Le Pen presents the same fragility as Mr. Macron, their profound indifference to social mistreatment”so “we are going to convince, a lot of things will change” and “voting is more open than many think”, he said after a meeting with restorers of Notre-Dame de Paris at the Collège des Bernardins. On Sunday, he will galvanize his troops on the Place du Capitole in Toulouse.
Saying on his side “serene”Marine Le Pen appears more than ever determined to replay, to win, the same match as in 2017, with a second round against the outgoing president. “What was announced as the mandatory re-election of Emmanuel Macron was fake news”she said Friday in Haguenau in the Bas-Rhin.
Fabien Roussel at war against tax evasion
“Voting effective is voting ‘Happy Days'” : the communist candidate Fabien Roussel, in Villeurbanne in the Rhône, sought to convince on the left. “We will go to the polls to vote proud, upright, confident and smiling”assured the candidate during a meeting.
Widely left behind in voting intentions by Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI), best placed on the left, “we still manage to move the lines”said Fabien Roussel, who fluctuates between 2.5% and 5% in the polls, while he says he is starting “eight decisive days” the country “to reconnect with great progress and great hopes”.
“You no longer vote, you voted a move to the left, a move to the right, you voted with hope for Macron, you are disappointed today and you have not yet made your choice… Well you are also at home in the France of happy days”, added the leader of the PCF. For more than an hour, he focused on the fight against “tax evasion” as well as “tax optimization”, “equally disloyal and unpatriotic”in front of nearly 4,000 people according to the organizers.
Yannick Jadot demonstrates against hunting
The environmental candidate for the presidency has once again denounced the five-year term of Emmanuel Macron as being that of “hunting lobby”during a demonstration in Compiègne against hunting with hounds. “In three weeks, if the French decide, we will ban hunting with hounds”explained the candidate, who marched behind a banner “Let’s abolish hunting with hounds”bouquet of flowers in hand, with some 200 people.
He also opposes “breeding for hunting. It’s 20 million animals that are killed each year when they leave the cage”he was offended.