The two candidates for the French presidency have kicked off the campaign for the second round. Vote intent polls would give the current president the win, albeit by a much smaller margin than the one in 2017.
Emmanuel Macron Yes Marine LePen have already been launched campaign for the Second round of the French presidential election on April 24, with a matching strategy trying to attract the voters of the eliminated candidates.
macron travels this Monday to several cities in the north of the country and tomorrow it heads east, two areas that have suffered from industrial decline over the past two decades and where Le Pen received the most votes, in a clear attempt to foot of the street with the citizens, as she is blamed for her distance from the population. The outgoing president will also be interviewed on television this afternoon, in a clear acceleration of your campaignwho was heavily criticized in the first round for having too few acts.
Meanwhile the extreme right Le Pen has gathered in the morning are campaign committee to prepare his strategy for the second round and has planned a visit to a farm that was not scheduled for the afternoon. Tomorrow he will offer a press conference on “democracy and the exercise of power”, in addition to several interviews with the press.
The vote completed today shows that Macron, the outgoing president, would have secured 27.84% of the vote, while Le Pen would have secured 23.15%. Both broke their records from the first round of 2017, with even the president taking a slightly larger margin.
Very tight polls
Vote intent polls released so far agree on a victory for Macron on the 24th, but by a much narrower margin than the resounding 66.1% – 33.9% in 2017. Now the president’s re-election is set to take place with a difference of between 2 and 8 percentage points, according to four demographic institutes.
After taking note of the results of the first round, the candidates shouted from the political arc moving from the moderate right to communism to vote for Macron, or at least not to vote for Le Pen. This is a new edition of the so-called “Republican Front”, as the cordon sanitaire is called in France to prevent the far right from coming to power at any level of government.
The collapse of the two major traditional center-right (Republicans) and center-left (Socialist Party) formations means the two candidates for the Elysee will have to seek votes from more radicalized voters or abstain, which was the second highest in a first round.
Political scientist Christèle Lagier, an expert on elections and the far right at the University of Avignon, finds in statements to EFE “quite complicated” that Le Pen can mobilize a significant number of new votes, something she could do alone – and she feels “very unlikely ” – among the abstentions and in the “most volatile” part of the electorate of the leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came in third place.
For Lagier, the far right has a ceiling, but its level depends on the other political forces that offer “credible alternatives” and do not include issues like immigration and security in the terms of the ultras.
Source: EITB
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
