France: In the final straight the presidential election with a clear lead for Macron

The second round of the presidential election, which will be held on April 24, is approaching, with Emanuel Macron being presented as the favorite in the battle with Marie Le Pen, having a clear lead. However, much is expected to be judged in the “telematch” of the two candidates next Wednesday, with the leader of the extreme right betting on the confrontation with the outgoing president to make the overthrow.

Of course, for Le Pen to become the first female president in the history of France, she will have to win over the supporters of the candidate of the left, Jean-Luc Melanson, who came marginally third in the first round, something that seems unlikely, while waiting for those who abstained on the first Sunday to vote for it to express their dissatisfaction with the outgoing president.

Meanwhile, Emanuel Macron started on Monday and after his tours in the French countryside, where obviously wanting to change the image of the “distant” and the “candidate of the rich”, he chose what the French call “swimming in the crowd” . As a result, in his meetings with citizens, he sometimes heard “out of the box” about his ideas about raising the retirement age, while Marin Le Pen, willingly or unwillingly, heard them from French Muslims in which she wanted to ban the right to circulate in public with the traditional “headscarf”. In general, however, this first week after the first round of the presidential election, Macron tried to show that he is quite close to some ideas of the left and much more of the Ecologists, and Lepen that he does not belong to the extreme right, nor is he so rigid in relation to the past. However, Macron did not fail to accuse Lepen of authoritarianism and extremism.

“These criticisms make me smile because we have never had a president who showed more signs of extremism than Emanuel Macron,” Lepen said, referring to police action against political demonstrations, such as the mobilization of yellow vests.

Meanwhile, consultations continue between politicians who either did not make it to the second round or did not run in the run-up to the June parliamentary elections, which will determine whether the new French president will be able to govern on his own or will be forced to run. so-called cohabitation with a prime minister from another party. The apparent collaboration of Melanson’s party with environmentalists and communists increases the chances of non-autonomy, as based on the results of the first round of the presidential election, the sum of the three brings them first in many constituencies. In the first round of the presidential election, however, Macron came first in 256 constituencies, Le Pen in 206 and Melanson in 104 constituencies.

Finally, similar consultations seem to exist between former President Nicolas Sarkozy and the current president, even if the latter denies them, bearing in mind that next Sunday he needs Melanson’s voters. According to a BVA poll, nine days before the second round, the majority of Jean-Luc Melanson’s voters are considering either abstaining (30%) or voting white (22%). However, those who will go to the polls are much more likely to vote for Emanuel Macron (30%) than for Marin Le Pen (18%).