Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen goes to the first round of the election presidential elections France next Sunday morale is high. The biggest threat to his candidacy, extremist polemicist Eric Zemmour’s race frenzy, has come to an end with strength, with recent polls placing him in a comfortable second place (24% of the vote, just 2, 5 percent of President Emmanuel Macron), in the polls. If approved, it will qualify for a new duel with Macron in the second round. And that morality can be seen this Thursday. perpignanone of his party’s strongholds, National Rally (RN)here this Sunday, at the last rally before the elections, he gathered nearly 3,000 loyal supporters.
At Perpignan, Le Pen reiterated the main themes of his campaign: purchasing powerthe need to restore France to its former glory, immigration referendum and stabbings against Macron’s administration, especially after the McKinsey scandal, according to which the president and his government maliciously resorted to the US foreign consulting firm in recent years and went to court. No words for Zemmour.
He presented himself as the only candidate with the ability to “regain”. stability and ‘joie de vivre’ and ‘Restore the organization and authority of the State’. “It is the French who must decide who is worthy of being French and has the privilege of entering the national community. Being French is not an administrative condition, it’s an honor.‘ manifested.
Le Pen also emphasized the need to go to the polls this Sunday in his speech. “If the people vote, the people win (…) Let’s take back control!” He stressed for several minutes to fend off the ghost of the nation. abstention. “Sailor, president!” many times. The participants, who chanted the slogan “We will win”, replied.
believing in victory
“It is important to be here today, this is the last rally before the first round,” he told El Periódico de Catalunya, a newspaper of the same group, Prensa Ibérica, before starting the action. It neighbors Nueva Aquitaine by RN and the town of Corrèze, 400 kilometers from Perpignan. Elophe confident of Le Pen’s victory absence of rival. “Marine Le Pen campaigned very well on issues important to citizens, while Macron did not,” stressed shortly before a nearby band began singing ‘La Marseillaise’.
“Le Pen’s vision is ours: France must change. I want a prosperous France, and now we are ruined,” says a 65-year-old Perpinyà woman, who chose not to be named. “We are tired of Macron-Jupiter,” says mother and daughter Daniler, who came from Montpellier to attend the rally. They refer to the “Jupiter” presidency that Macron advocates against a government closer to the citizen, such as that run by the socialist François Hollande.
Nicolas Caudeville, a local journalist and blogger from Perpinyà, takes a similar view. despair for the people absence of the future“.
It was in Perpinyà, the largest city in the hands of the RN and led by the architect and former partner of the party’s moderate turnaround that began more than a decade ago. Louis Aliot, where the ultra candidate launched his candidacy on July 4, three weeks after the crash in the regionals. That day, he warned of the danger of abstaining against Macron, which would punish him if he lands in the second round (a historical 66 percent in the districts). In the last half century, abstention has been increasing, and in the 2017 presidential elections, it was 22.23% in the first round and 25.44% in the second round.
The far-right leader ran a pragmatic campaign without insisting too much on the most controversial issues such as security, immigration and Islam, and without directing most of his speeches on: purchasing power. Impact on inflation increase in energy prices and war in ukraine They acted as catalysts. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Research (Insee), the CPI in March rose 4.5%, compared to 3.5% in February.
“You chose a topic transversepurchasing power to fully ‘to put together’, to combine, to reunite “For people beyond the support of their traditional electorate, especially for the runoff,” says Moussa Bourekba, a researcher at the Barcelona Center for International Affairs (Cidob). Raquel García of the Royal Institute of Elcano agrees, stressing that Le Pen knew”channel discontentRun a campaign that “focuses on issues that matter to the electorate”.
Third attempt
This is Le Pen’s third attempt to reach the Elysee, and in the 11 years since she took the reins of the party, she has been working on the image of the “presidential woman” (“woman of the state” can be read in the election caption). posters ) and in the “softening” of his father and founder’s controversial speeches National Front (formerly RN), Jean Marie Le Pen highlights Bourekba. “You couldn’t have done her a better favor than Eric Zemmour’s look during this détente period (…). What happened? unthinkable: envision Marine Le Pen as the candidate reasonable to suggest realistic program and even to some extent tolerant in some ways,” adds this analyst.
García, in addition to agreeing with Zemmour on issues such as immigration, points out that one of the factors contributing to his more moderate image is the abandonment of rhetoric against him. exit the euro and the EU and more tolerant attitude towards him same-sex marriage and themes LGTBI. “A competitor has emerged to his right, which helps him be perceived more in the center,” emphasizes the researcher at the Royal Institute of Elcano.
The tough test of the second round
transition Deniz Le Pen The second round is considered final, according to the polls predicted. However, victory in the final election on April 24 looks much more complicated, although with each passing day the distance between him and the president is shrinking. Emmanuel Macronand said his name is being heard more and more as a future tenant of the Elysee. “Of course he can win,” said the former prime minister a few days ago. Edward Phillips.
“I don’t think I have a chance to win,” explains Cidob researcher Moussa Bourekba. According to him, in the second round, left-wing voters will abstain, mostly preferring to stay at home. “A Le Pen-Macron duel for them choose between plague and cholera‘ he points out.
Raquel Garcia of the Royal Institute of Elcano agrees. According to him, times of uncertainty like the present, ukraine war monopolizing public debate and “supporting the ruling candidate” after the experience of the pandemic. In addition, Macron adds, “a centrist candidate who knows how to bring together a wider electorate.”