They do not leave each other more than a sole. The two presidential finalists Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen face each other on Friday through the media, after the start of the campaign between the two rounds marked by a quest for proximity for the president-candidate, a search for credibility for the far-right candidate.
After her first big meeting since the first round, Thursday evening in Avignon, the RN candidate continues from 07:45 the mornings on France Bleu Vaucluse, then France Bleu Provence before going on RMC-BFMTV from Avignon. She will then be traveling in the region.
At the same time, the outgoing president, who was the day before in Le Havre to talk about ecology, will be the guest of franceinfo for an hour in the morning, before France 2 in the evening. Big media duel from a distance in perspective on two candidates, two projects, two radically opposed Frances.
Nine days before the election, the outgoing president retains the advantage in voting intentions (from 53 to 55%) but with a smaller margin than five years ago (64/36%). And still with several unknowns, in particular the level of abstention and the postponement of the 21.95% of votes which went to the rebellious candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Sunday.
This campaign between two rounds is nothing like that of the first, which took place in the shadow of the war in Ukraine which had mobilized the president-candidate a lot.
He had only made one meeting, few trips and had refused to debate with the 11 other contenders for the Elysée, triggering the anger of his opponents, who had accused him of wanting to “step over” the ballot by forcing them to box in the void.
Since the beginning of the week, Emmanuel Macron has considerably lightened his diplomatic agenda. He multiplies the immersions in the region in the North, in Alsace and in Normandy before a big meeting on Saturday in Marseille, with meetings and sometimes lively exchanges during long walks of crowds.
– “France of the forgotten” –
Change of tone and pace also for Marine Le Pen, who for several weeks had been leading a low-noise campaign, encouraging travel to small towns in the “France of the forgotten” around the theme of purchasing power.
And left the most radical remarks on immigration to her far-right rival Eric Zemmour, she thus tried to smooth her image while maintaining a program of rupture.
Since Monday, she has been going from media to media and has given press conferences on the reform of institutions and diplomacy, two sovereign subjects par excellence.
Everything changed after the first round. “We are upside down: Emmanuel Macron will seek in this campaign to restore an image of proximity that he does not have and Marine Le Pen will seek to consolidate, install an image of credibility that she has less than Macron”, told AFP Bernard Sananès, president of the Elabe polling institute.
Same observation for the general manager of Odoxa Céline Bracq: “Emmanuel Macron says to himself: + it’s the moment to take risks + and for her, it’s not the moment to take risks. She tends to amplify her first-round strategy, namely a Marine Le Pen which unites, which does not frighten and which can be appreciated”.
– “To forget what the RN is” –
“She does everything not to take the risk of reactivating this image of a dangerous candidate,” added this official. “She no longer puts Le Pen (on the posters), she erases all the signs, in her leaflets she barely speaks of immigration. She wants to make people forget what the RN is”.
Finally, in the middle of the campaign for the second round, Emmanuel Macron will resume his role as president on Friday to inspect the construction site of Notre-Dame de Paris, three years to the day after the fire of the cathedral on April 15, 2019. A way to mark the difference with its rival thanks to its statute of head of State, always with the orders.
The opportunity also to show the work undertaken in the light of his promise, launched as a challenge just after the fire, to rebuild the monument in five years. Since then, the objective has been slightly revised downwards.
The site will not be completed in five years but the monument must be returned to worship by April 16, 2024, the day when a first mass must be celebrated again in the nave.
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