In the midst of a diplomatic and security crisis in Europe, France will face the first round of its 2022 electoral elections with a dozen candidates and a strong struggle between the poles, which keeps the current president Emmanuel Macron at the center.
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Even though the first polls mark the president as the favorite to remain in the Elysee, behind him is his biggest opponent, Marine Le Penwho dreams of becoming president after three failed attempts, in which he just lost to Macron in 2017.
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Macron, who has faced a number of crises throughout his mandate, has decorated his government in the polls and favorability, given his attempt to mediate with Russia in the current war that Europe is experiencing and that it also has the management of the pandemic, the fighting extremists in France and the ‘Yellow Vests’ protests in 2018.
Months before arriving at the Elysee, he already warned that he would be a “Jupiterine president”, an expression that, according to the Larousse dictionary, evokes the “dominating and authoritarian character” of the Roman god Jupiter. And he did not disappoint.
“I think I arrived [al poder] with a vitality, which I hope to continue to have, and with a will to shake” the system, was justified in December during an interview about his mandate, in which he recognized “errors”.
His personal management of the worst crisis since the Second World War earned him attacks from the opposition and, despite the initial suspicion of the population, he knew how to gain their trust and impose controversial measures such as the health passport.
“Crises require hyper-presidentialization (…) In those moments, Macron is like a fish in water”, unlike when the “sea is calm”, journalist Corinne Lhaïk analyzed during the campaign in the newspaper L’opinion.
However, the recent rise of the far-right Marine Le Pen – her main rival in 2017 – threatens to take away a victory that seemed assured, in the midst of controversy over the massive use of consultancies by the government.
“Since Brexit through so many elections, what seemed unlikely has happened, so I tell you very strongly tonight that nothing is impossible,” Macron warned during his only rally, calling for “general mobilization.”
This elegant man with a slender figure and blue eyes was little known until his appointment as Economy Minister in 2014 by the then French President, François Hollande, after being his economic adviser.
Three years later, Emmanuel Macron, born in 1977 in Amiens (north) to a middle-class family, became the youngest elected president of France, aged 39at the end of a meteoric rise of a man in a hurry.
Marine Le Pen back in contention
With a speech focused on purchasing power and a moderate image compared to the ultra Éric Zemmour, Marine Le Pen could fulfill the dream of decades of the extreme right: to reach the presidency of France.
“I have never been so close to victory,” assured the 53-year-old National Group (RN) candidate at the end of March, and who in 2017 lost in the second round against the liberal Emmanuel Macron with 33.9% of votes. However, the third time may be the charm.
Le Pen closes the gap in the polls, five points behind Macron, if both go to the ballot after the first round on Sunday.
If she obtained the keys to the Elysee, this training lawyer would successfully crown her strategy of erasing the extremist image of the party since in 2011 she took the reins of the then National Front (FN), founded by her father.
Leading members of these sectors, including her father, were pushed aside by Marine Le Pen, and others joined the ranks of her rival Éric Zemmour, who observers say is seeking to revive the traditional FN.
The RN candidate has also made an effort to soften her image to leave behind the heated face-to-face with Macron of 2017, in which she was reproached for her “aggressiveness” and “lack of preparation”.
Le Pen “plays nice and takes advantage of it. And, furthermore, we have become accustomed to extremes”lamented the Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie, about the rise of the rival candidate in her third presidential election.
The politician born on August 5, 1968 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a wealthy city west of Paris, visits markets, gets on tractors and gives intimate interviews… to differentiate herself from Macron, perceived as “arrogant”.
In interviews, she also often presents herself as a farmer, a cat breeder, in an attempt to normalize her image and undermine the “republican front” of parties against her in the second round, according to a report by the Jean-Jaurès Foundation.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the hope of the left
At 70 years old, Jean-Luc Mélenchona brilliant speaker and admirer of the left in Latin America, feels the keys to the Elysee “within reach”, driven by his image of a “useful vote” within an atomized left in France.
His third presidential could be the definitive one. With around 15.5 percent of voting intentions, the polls give him a third place behind the centrist Emmanuel Macron and the far-right Marine Le Pen, but with some option to go to the ballot.
“Now we feel our destiny at hand,” the radical left candidate stressed on Tuesday from a rally in Lille (north) and in eleven other cities simultaneously thanks to his popular holograms, in an attempt to multiply his options.
In 2017, he was already the first left-wing candidate with almost 20 percent of the vote, which left him in fourth place on the first lap. But unlike then, his communist allies have now decided to cast off and introduce Fabien Roussel.
The famous one of them was in 2018, when during a police search at the headquarters of his party in Paris, he shouted at the security forces: “I am the Republic!”
Like Marine Le Pen, the leader of France Insumisa tries to position himself as the defender of purchasing power and the popular classes, against an Emmanuel Macron presented as “arrogant” and “president of the rich”.
Advance retirement to 60 years, limit the price of oil to 1.40 euros per liter, raise pensions and the minimum wage: Mélenchon emphasizes these promises in a context of concern about rising inflation.
At the international level, he proposes leaving NATO in pursuit of “alterglobalist alliances”, defends that France is a country “not aligned” with the great powers and abandon the part of the treaties that prevent it from applying its program.
The “other candidates”
Eric Zemmour, far right, is the candidate of íReconquista! And it was the great novelty of the campaign. His far-right discourse is more radical than Le Pen’s, with measures such as “remigration”, which seeks to expel a million foreigners in five years.
The 63-year-old former commentator goes further on issues such as “identity”: he equates Islam and Islamism and proposes a referendum to prevent giving newborns a first name of foreign origin. His intention to vote is 9%, according to the latest polls.
Valérie Pécresse represents the rightbeing the candidate of the Republicans (traditional right), former minister of the conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012), failed to prevail in the campaign, with around 8% of voting intentions.
The 54-year-old president of the Paris region promises that she will put order “in public accounts and in the streets,” firmly on security issues and a liberal economic policy.
Yannick Jadot, 54-year-old environmentalist MEP, is around 5% of voting intention. Its program of 120 proposals closely links environmental, economic, social and international measures.
Jean Lassalle in his second presidential campaign. This 66-year-old former shepherd from the south-west of France places his beloved rural world as the “great national cause” of his project. His motto: “The authentic France”. The candidate for íResistamos!, who presents himself as the spokesperson for the rural world, would achieve 3% of the vote.
Fabien Roussel, candidate of the Communist Party, has been one of the surprises of the campaign, although the latest polls give him around 2.5% of the vote. This 53-year-old former journalist proposes a program of “happy days” in favor of employment and purchasing power, as well as breaking with European treaties.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo sank to 2% voting intention, a setback for the Socialists, when François Hollande was President of France just five years ago, before Macron’s election. The candidate born 62 years ago in the south of Spain wants to respond to the “social, ecological and democratic emergency”.
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan of the radical right presents himself as “heir” to the ideas of General Charles de Gaulle, he would obtain 2% of the vote, less than half of his result in 2017.
Philippe Poutou, a 55-year-old Trotskyist, who is participating for the third time in the presidential elections, defends a project aimed at putting “the capitalists out of the game” and seeks to stand up to the “president of the rich” Emmanuel Macron.
Nathalie Arthaud She is a defender of a “revolutionary communism” based on “collective struggles.” She leads a political project against the bosses and in favor of the “workers.” Her intention to vote is 0.5 percent.
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