Final sprint in the presidential election one week before the first round. After Emmanuel Macron, the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, given in third position in the polls, gathers his troops in Toulouse on Sunday and the right-wing candidate Valérie Pécresse his in Paris.
This is the home stretch in this extraordinary campaign hit hard by the Covid crisis and the war in Ukraine. With a major challenge for the 12 contenders for the Elysée: to mobilize their supporters, to seek out the undecided and those tempted by a potentially high abstention.
Presidential: municipalities with more than 20% abstention
© AFP – Source: AFP
The last days of the campaign are electrified by a narrowing gap in the polls between Emmanuel Macron, candidate of “at the same time” wanting to transcend the right / left divides. And its far-right rival, in the midst of a survey dynamic, which is surfing on galloping inflation and putting the defense of purchasing power at the heart of its campaign.
During a giant meeting on Saturday with more social overtones, Emmanuel Macron called for “general mobilization” against “extremism” and “great stunting”.
Faced with the 2017 remake announced by opinion polls, the best-placed left-wing candidate (around 15%) Jean-Luc Mélenchon hopes to win a ticket in the final.
A woman walks past campaign posters of MP and presidential candidate for the French left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in Marseille on March 31, 2022
© AFP – Nicolas TUCAT
To make this hoped-for “remontada” a reality, he beats the recall on the emblematic Place du Capitole in Toulouse, in a historically left-wing region but under the windows of the LR mayor and “Macron-compatible” Jean-Luc Moudenc. The Pink City with a powerful tradition of protest voting on the left was one of the strongholds of the “yellow vests” movement in 2018/19.
– “Things are crystallizing” –
The entourage of Jean-Luc Mélenchon does not advance a figure but hopes to “fill the place” for the penultimate meeting of the candidate. “In a general campaign which has little media influence, and which mobilizes fewer people than in 2012 and 2017, ours mobilizes well”, welcomed campaign director Manuel Bompard.
French President and candidate for re-election of the liberal party La République en Marche (LREM) Emmanuel Macron greets his supporters during his first campaign rally at the Arena Paris La Défense, in Nanterre on April 2, 2022
© AFP – Thomas COEX
“In the home stretch, things crystallize, which tends to amplify the dynamics that already exist. But for Macron, his dynamic is downward. As for Marine Le Pen, she is still overestimated in the polls,” he said. he assures.
After a meeting with Parisian restaurateurs, the rebellious leader, a third-time presidential candidate, showed himself to be combative on Saturday: “Le Pen presents the same fragility as Mr. Macron, their profound indifference to the social abuse”.
In 2017, he took advantage of the home stretch to create momentum and arrived in 4th position (19.58%) just behind the right-wing candidate François Fillon (20.01%).
But the rebellious, who pleads for a “useful vote”, is far from unanimous within a divided and weakened left, with the ecologist Yannick Jadot given around 6%, the communist Fabien Roussel (around 4%) and especially the socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo given at a historically low level (around 2%).
Some are worried about seeing the preponderant role he could play after the presidential election in the event of a high score for a recomposition of the left.
– Tenors of the right –
On the right too, some are already thinking about the future. But the Republican candidate, neck and neck with former far-right polemicist Eric Zemmour around 10% of the voting intentions, will try to mobilize an electorate very courted by her opponents, from the far right to the candidate Macron.
French far-right Reconquete! presidential candidate Eric Zemmour leaves a soccer field during a campaign visit in Aix-en-Provence on April 2, 2022
© AFP – BERTRAND GUAY
The tenors of the right will try to give the image of a united party despite the defections to En Marche and the far right, before leaving Valérie Pécresse to develop “the main axes and the great values” of her campaign: the regal with a great firmness on security, and purchasing power with “10% increase in wages”.
Meetings also for Anne Hidalgo and Nathalie Arthaud (LO) in Paris. Trip to Nanterre for Yannick Jadot, and participation in a demonstration against the extreme right in Paris for Philippe Poutou (NPA) after his meeting on Saturday.
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