The centrist president Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen will again dispute the ballot of the presidential election in France, after being the two most voted candidates in the first round on Sunday with a greater than expected advantage in favor of the current head of stateaccording to the first estimates.
Macron, in power since 2017, collects between 27.6% and 29.7% of the vote, followed by Le Pen (23.5% and 24.7%). The leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon (19.8% and 20.8%) would remain at the gates of the second round on April 24.
The vote, held after an atypical campaign marked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, also exacerbates the decline that began in 2017 of the traditional parties – the Socialists and the Republicans (right) -, which would achieve less than 10% of the vote in total .
All this in a context of greater abstention. Participation in the first round at 5:00 p.m. was 65%, 4.4 points less than in 2017 at that time and 6.55 points more than in 2002, the year with the record for abstention in a presidential election, according to figures from the Ministry of Inside. Political scientists feared another high.
The French will now have in their hands to choose which course France takes until 2027, a decision that could imply a change in the international alliances of this nuclear and economic power if Marine Le Pen is elected.
The candidate of the National Group (RN), 53, proposes to leave the NATO integrated command, which sets the Alliance’s military strategy, and her election would deal another setback to the European Union after the re-election of Hungarian Viktor Orban.
His rival from La República en Marcha (LREM), 44, is committed to continuing his pro-European and reformist drive with which he came to power and thus advocates strengthening the military autonomy of the EU within NATO.
The international situation is not, however, the main concern of the French when voting. The loss of purchasing power has been the main concern for months, exacerbated by the rise in energy prices after the war in Ukraine.
Can
Socialist candidates Anne Hidalgo, ecologist Yannick Jadot and communist Fabien Roussel have already said they will call for a vote against the extreme right if Le Pen goes to the ballot.
Marine Le Pen thus opted to present herself as the defender of purchasing power and the popular classes to capitalize on the discontent with “the president of the rich”, which was reflected in the “yellow vests” protest in 2018 and 2019.
The program of the heiress of the National Front (FN) proposes to reduce the VAT on fuel, gas and electricity from 20% to 5.5%, exempt from income tax those under 30 years of age and double aid for single mothers , among other measures.
Although Le Pen softened her speech to appear less radical, his plans also include the traditional proposals of the extreme right: social assistance for French people, expulsion of illegal immigrants, prohibition of the Islamic headscarf in public, etc.
Faced with this more moderate image, Macron tries to revive the fear of “extremist danger”, charging against his far-right rival who, in his opinion, “lies” to his voters and has a “racist” speech.
The centrist president, whose government adopted measures since the end of 2021 to limit the rise in the price of electricity for companies and households and compensate for the increase in inflation, seeks to resume his more liberal profile in his second term.
His star proposal is thus to delay the retirement age from 62 to 65 years. In addition, he proposes to reduce the taxes of the companies in almost 11,000 million dollars, the “renaissance” of nuclear energy and to increase the minimum pension.
“Republican Front”
Experts doubt whether the cordon sanitaire around the extreme right will work as it did in 2017 and 2002. For the director of the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, Gilles Finchelstein, the traditional “republican front” will not be enough to isolate Le Pen.
Socialist candidates Anne Hidalgo, ecologist Yannick Jadot and communist Fabien Roussel have already said they will call for a vote against the extreme right if Le Pen goes to the ballot. The right-wing Valérie Pécresse will not give a vote slogan instead.
This Sunday’s results represent a setback for the traditional parties — the Socialist Party and the Republicans (LR) of Pécresse –, which despite governing for decades, only achieved the confidence of 1 in 10 voters in total.
And it opens a crisis weeks before the June legislative elections, keys to the financial survival of the parties. The former socialist president François Hollande already proposed in March for the “reconstruction of the left”.
Both Macron and the extreme right have instead called on supporters of The Republicans — divided between an economically liberal wing and a socially conservative wing — to join their ranks, as some have already done since 2017.
AF
#Macron #Pen #dispute #presidency #France