Home stretch. Before the second round of the presidential election, on Sunday April 24, the two candidates are mobilizing more than ever. And avoid certain errors. Thus, the famous and long-awaited debate between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, scheduled for Wednesday, April 20. This meeting against the French almost alone sums up Marine Le Pen’s strategy for this week between the two rounds: “It will be decisive, she has been preparing for it for five years“, sums up an executive of the RN campaign.
>> Presidential 2022: Emmanuel Macron in the lead ahead of Marine Le Pen, according to our barometer eight days from the second round
After her trip to Caen on Monday morning, and an appointment with the listeners of France Bleu this afternoon, Marine Le Pen opts for a green setting, which her relatives keep secret. She will not return to Paris until Wednesday, for the debate. “It is there that she will demonstrate her credibility, and there that she will be able to speak and to those who did not go to vote in the first round, and to those who do not dare to vote for her “, judge a loved one.
For Emmanuel Macron, it’s different: he is the outgoing. The exercise is an imposed figure. Do not miss the appointment, but not be content with it either. So no monastic retreat: the president-candidate is expected on France Culture on Monday morning, then France 5 the same evening. “He still has to spare himself a little“, says an ally, but a trip is already planned for Tuesday, April 19. And Thursday and Friday, he wants to speed up, a close friend knows: he will stay on the ground, and hold a public meeting, just before the end of the official campaign.
Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen will be at a meeting in Arras, and on the ground on Friday. Mirrored agendas, for upside-down tactics. Last week, the Le Pen camp was almost surprised by the re-demonization offensive “because with Eric Zemmour as a lightning rod, we didn’t have a warm-up before the first round“, says an elected member of the National Rally. Moreover, “to reassure“will remain the key word.
>> Presidential 2022: this is how the debate between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will take place, April 20 at 9 p.m.
On the ground, Marine Le Pen has become aware that a proposal such as the banning of the veil in public space can be a “totem” that turns into a stick to be beaten. Exactly the kind of symbol that serves the adversary. This week, in the Macron camp, the challenge is to give the French – and above all those who are tempted to abstain – a clear vision of what a France led by Marine Le Pen would be like.
For the entourage of the candidate president, the word of the week will be “mobilization“, already hammers a linchpin of the campaign.
“Those who will not vote will have to accept and assume a setback both in terms of freedoms, equality, and in terms of ecology”
Support from Emmanuel Macronat franceinfo
“The French must be aware, says this HQ employeethat on April 25 they can wake up hungover, like the Americans after the election of Donald Trump, or the British after the Brexit vote“.