The first round of the presidential elections in France will take place on Sunday. President Emmanuel Macron is leading in the polls, but his main challenger, right-wing Marine Le Pen, has recently been catching up. Due to the war in Ukraine, Macron started the election campaign relatively late. Now, however, he lashes out at Le Pen: “Actually, nothing has changed with her: it is a racist program.”
In an interview with the daily Le Parisien, Macron emphasized that Le Pen designed it to divide society and that it was very brutal. Le Pen reacted to radio station France Info: “Emmanuel Macron does not know my program.”
Macron also regretted his late start to the campaign. It is a fact that he got in later than desired, he admitted on Friday in an interview with radio station RTL. But he kept his will to win.
Macron in the war in Ukraine: statesman and mediator
Macron presented himself as a statesman and mediator in the Ukraine crisis, while Le Pen was already touring France, beating the campaign drums in smaller rural towns. In the interview, the president asked for your understanding that he couldn’t join until later.
In his view, it would have been incomprehensible if he had plunged into the chaos of the election campaign as head of state six weeks ago as war broke out in Ukraine, he argued. Macron only opened the hot phase of the election campaign at the beginning of the month with a huge rally in front of tens of thousands of supporters.
Macron’s lead melts
Macron’s lead in the polls had recently melted away. While the incumbent president fell slightly to 26.5 percent in an Ipsos-Sopra Steria poll, Le Pen rose to 23 percent.
Left-wing politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon is in third place with 16.5 percent. An Ifop survey showed the same trend, in which Macron also made slight losses at 26.5 percent and Le Pen at 24 percent gains. Mélenchon remained stable in this poll at 17.5%. Behind in both polls are the candidates of the classical people’s parties, the center-right Republican Valérie Pécresse with 8.5 to 9 percent and the socialist Anne Hidalgo with two percent each. Right-wing extremist Éric Zemmour, who experienced a boom at the start of the election campaign, has only 8.5 percent in both polls.
Source: Krone
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.
