President-candidate Emmanuel Macron called this Saturday, April 2, during a giant meeting at the Paris La Défense Arena in Nanterre, to the ” general mobilization ” against the ” extremisms ” and the ” great stunting “. This in the face of the strong surge in the polls of Marine Le Pen, who is campaigning on purchasing power.
After a campaign start at least, Emmanuel Macron gave his first major meeting just eight days before the presidential election. It was time. Because if he is still given the lead in the first round, the voting intentions in his favor crumble. And the polls only place him six points ahead of Marine Le Pen in second place – 53% against 47% for the far-right candidate. Something to worry those around him.
” It is the fight of progress against withdrawal, the fight of patriotism and of Europe against the nationalists. April’s picks are simple, deep down summed up Emmanuel Macron at the end of a speech of almost two and a half hours in front of 30,000 supporters waving French and European flags at the Paris La Défense Arena in Nanterre, the largest indoor hall in Europe.
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Coming late into the campaign, very busy with the war in Ukraine and his mandate as President-in-Office of the Council of the European Union, he wanted to dissipate an excess of confidence among his supporters: “ Do not believe polls or formal commentators who tell you that (the defeat, Editor’s note) it is impossible, unthinkable. That the election is already decided, that everything will be fine “.
Sketch of a republican front
In addition to mobilizing his supporters, who might be tempted to abstain, he called for ” political excess “, inviting ” those of social democracy to Gaullism, passing through ecologists who do not [l’]have not yet joined, to do so “. Like a first sketch of a “republican front facing the extreme right. He also highlighted two areas hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, education, because ” the social elevator is still too broken down », and health, an area « where we need to go further “.
Emmanuel Macron went back on his promises of lower taxes and a return to full employment while defending his RSA project conditioned on hours of activity. He again defended raising the retirement age to 65, a promise also under fire from critics. ” Do not believe those who explain to you that they will retire at 60 or 62, (..) and that everything will be fine, it is not “, he hammered, clearly targeting Marine Le Pen.
” Good luck to those who, faced with Russia, advocate the great withdrawal and good luck to those who, faced with the return of empires and the challenges of the times, defend the ‘great stunting’ “, he launched against the leitmotif of the” great replacement of the other far-right candidate Eric Zemmour.
(With AFP)
