French presidential first-round favorites President Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen faced off from a distance on Wednesday night as polls show the gap between the two is narrowing, each insisting on the defense of the purchasing power of the French. Asked about the private television channel TF1 to find out what their first step would be if he were elected on April 24, everyone mentioned the maintenance of purchasing power undermined by the war in Ukraine and the soaring prices of oil. energy in particular, as well as inflation.
For Mr. Macron, it will be a question of “maintaining a shield for the price of gas and electricity”, and indexing retirement pensions to inflation “from this summer”.
For her part, Marine Le Pen indicated that her first measure, if she acceded to the Elysée, would be “to lower the VAT [taxe sur la valeur ajoutée] from 20 to 5.5% on all energy” and to create “a basket of basic necessities” with 0% VAT.
At the same time, on the public channel France 2, the outsider of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in third place in the polls, said he wanted, if he is elected, to requisition French stocks of cereals, including supply is threatened by the war in Ukraine.
Asked about the conflict in Ukraine, the outgoing president, who now systematically attacks the far right, described as “unfounded” and “scandalous” the criticisms of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on his telephone conversations with Vladimir Putin.
“These remarks are both unfounded and scandalous, but they do not surprise me”, because Mr. Morawiecki, supported by “a far-right party”, “interferes in the French political campaign” after having “several times received Mme Le Pen”, which he “supports”, declared the president-candidate.
The candidate of the National Rally (RN) for her part called for the recall of the French ambassador to Russia as a sign of firmness vis-à-vis Moscow, accused of having committed massacres in Ukraine.
The ballot is struggling to interest voters: record abstention – around 30%, according to some polls – hovers over this presidential election.
The election, which engages 12 candidates, nevertheless has crucial issues, both national and international, France remaining a heavyweight in the European Union, which it currently chairs.
Faced with a split left and a sluggish right, the polls have been suggesting for weeks a qualification in the first round of Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, as in 2017.
The RN candidate, who has smoothed her image and watered down certain proposals without changing the substance of her project on immigration, is steadily rising in voting intentions, reaching 21.5%, with an acceleration in the home stretch. (+4 points in two weeks), according to an Ipsos-Sopra Steria poll published on Wednesday.
It is five points behind Mr. Macron (who is at 26.5%), but far ahead of Mr. Mélenchon, also up (16%).
Complacency with Russia
Mr. Macron benefited, with the war in Ukraine, from the “flag effect”, which took him to more than 30% in the polls for the first round three weeks ago, and where he appeared arch-favorite in the second.
But now, his rating has shrunk in the first round, and the gap in the second round with Marine Le Pen has narrowed, according to opinion polls published on Tuesday: 56% against 44% for Ipsos-Sopra Steria, and 53% against 47% according to Elabe. In this context, Mr. Macron has launched in recent days an offensive against Mr.me Le Pen, positioning itself as a bulwark against extremes and emphasizing its European flair.
He also denounced “the complacency vis-à-vis Vladimir Putin” of certain candidates, without naming them.
Far-right candidates Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour, as well as Jean-Luc Mélenchon, have been criticized for their pro-Russian positions.
McKinsey case
Often accused of being the president of the rich, Emmanuel Macron faces a controversy caused by the recourse of the public authorities to expensive services from private consulting firms, in particular from the American McKinsey.
French justice opened a preliminary investigation on March 31 for aggravated money laundering of tax evasion after a report by the Senate on the influence of these firms on public policy. Mr. Macron had wanted justice to take up any irregularities.
The Senate inquiry committee assured that the contracts concluded by the State with consulting firms had “more than doubled” between 2018 and 2021, reaching a record amount of more than one billion euros in 2021.
She also accused the French entities of the McKinsey firm of “tax optimization”, which would have led them to pay no corporate tax between 2011 and 2020.
Wishing to avoid any faux pas on his side so as not to break his upward momentum, Mme Le Pen has canceled several events this week. She is preparing for her last major partisan rally on conquered ground, Thursday, in Perpignan.