Paris (AP) – President Emmanuel Macron is in a popular position to win the second round of the French presidency on Sunday, but his advantage over far -right rival Marine Le Pen rests on huge uncertainty: voters who have decided to stay at home.
Sunday’s second round victory would make Macron the first president of France in 20 years to win a second term.
All the polls in recent days have coincided with the victory of the 44-year-old pro-European centrist, but the difference between his nationalist rival is unclear, according to the poll ranging from 6 to 15 percent.
Polls also suggest that the number of people who voted or stayed home and did not vote in this second and final round could be a record.
Another 10 presidential candidates were cut in the first round of voting on April 10. Who will be France’s next leader will largely depend on what those who supported the lost candidates on Sunday will do.
The question is difficult, especially for Left-wing voters who don’t want Macron But I also don’t want to see Le Pen in power. Macron’s second term was partly based on their mobilization, which is why the French leader has issued its Multiple appeal to leftist voters In recent days.
“Imagine what British citizens were saying a few hours before Brexit or (people) in the United States before Trump’s election: ‘I’m not leaving, what’s the point?’ “I can tell you they regret it the next day,” Macron warned France 5 this week.
“So if you want to avoid the unreliable, choose yourself,” he told a hesitant French voter.
Two opponents appeared in both fights in the last days before Sunday’s election, including Wednesday’s clash on One-on-One TV Debates.
Macron said Le Pen’s party loan from a Czech-Russian bank in 2014 made him unsuitable for relations with Moscow during the invasion of Ukraine. He also said plans to ban Muslim women from wearing headscarves in public in France would lead to a “civil war” in a country with the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.
“When someone tells you that Islam equals Islam, terrorism equals problem, it’s clearly called ultra-right,” Macron told France Inter radio on Friday.
In his victory speech in 2017, Macron promised to “do everything” in his five -year term to give the French “no more reason to vote for the excesses.”
Five years later, this challenge has not succeeded. Le Pen has solidified his place in the French political arena thanks to years of trying to make himself less extremist.
Le Pen’s campaign on this occasion tried to attract voters who were struggling with rising food and energy prices due to the Russian war in Ukraine. The 53-year-old candidate spoke about it Reducing the cost of living would be a top priority If France’s first female president is elected.
He criticized Macron’s “disastrous” presidency at its latest rally in the northern city of Aras.
“I’m not even talking about immigration or security, so I think all the French will just notice the failure of Macron’s policy … even if his economic situation is catastrophic,” he said.
Political analyst Mark Lazar, head of Sciences Po’s historical center, told the AP that he thinks Macron will win again. Le Pen “lacks credibility,” he said.
But if Macron is re -elected, “it’s a big deal,” he added. “Most people who voted for Macron wouldn’t vote for this program, but because they reject Marine Le Pen.
He said that meant Macron would face “a high level of mistrust” in the country.
Macron promised to transform the French economy to make it more independent and at the same time protect social benefits. He said he would also continue to fight for a stronger Europe.
His first term was shaken by a yellow vest protesting social injustice, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. This particularly prompted Macron to postpone pension reform, which he said he would resume shortly after the re-election, in order to gradually raise the minimum retirement age in France from 62 to 65. He said it was the only way to maintain retirement benefits.
French presidential elections are also strictly observed abroad.
In opinion surveys published on Thursday in several European newspapers, center -left leaders in Germany, Spain and Portugal called on French voters to choose him over his nationalist rival. They warned “populists and the far right” that they see Putin as “an ideological and political model that repeats his chauvinist ideas”.
Le Pen’s victory will be “a traumatic moment not only for France, but also for the EU and international relations, especially with the United States”, said Lazarus, stressing that Le Pen “wanted of a distant relationship between France and the United States. “
In any case, Sunday’s winner faces another hurdle to run France: the legislative elections in June will decide who will control the majority of seats in the French National Assembly.
The battles already promise a difficult battle.
AP reporters Katherine Gashka and Jeffrey Schaefer contributed to this story.
Source: Huffpost
