All the polls give him a clear lead in the first round of the presidential election and give him the winner in the second round: Emmanuel Macron is alone in the lead and “ alone on stage to use the expression of Parisian. ” Ten past four press conference Thursday. Three hours with readers of the regional press in Pau on Friday. Have you noticed ?, exclaims the newspaper, Emmanuel Macron never quotes his opponents. There is indeed an allusion to the extreme right from time to time but the names of the candidates are not pronounced. It’s the strategy of erasing… others. As if they didn’t exist. Coherent, he will not debate with them before the first round: in a ‘single on stage’ we do not share the light with anyone. »
Did Mélenchon convince?
Behind, her competitors are fighting for second place, for qualification in the second round… For the moment, Marine le Pen seems to be in the best position, if the polls are to be believed. But Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to believe it: “ Mélenchon spring “, title Release, which returns at length to the river speech delivered yesterday by the leader of France insubordinate place of the Republic in Paris in front of tens of thousands of people. ” The biggest political rally since the start of this dismal campaign “, highlighted Release. With for him, three big issues “, points out the newspaper. ” The first two, give a resolutely leftist speech and attract abstainers. And the third: reassure and appease voters on other lefts. »
And Release to ask oneself: by dedicating the rally ‘to the resistance of the Ukrainian people and against the Russian invasion’, has he done enough in a necessary mea culpa which is taking a long time to define itself? By ignoring the tenth anniversary of the attacks in Toulouse, while the President of the Republic paid homage to their victims on the spot, was Mélenchon able to silence the accusations of anti-Semitism of which he is the subject? By calling on socialist and communist voters to vote for him to avoid a Macron-Le Pen return match, did he convince them or steer them further? »
Answer at the polls…
Focus on the legislative…
In any case, as a result of this funny campaign, some, especially on the right, are planning beyond the presidential election…
That’s what points Le Figaro : “ in order not to shatter an image of unity exhibited in the meetings three short weeks before the first round, the candidates and the parties pretend not to ask themselves the burning question of the legislative elections. However, the subject is in everyone’s head and behind-the-scenes discussions are going well. On the right, we anticipate all scenarios, precise Le Figaro. Will the first opposition force and its 104 deputies be able to maintain their positions and count on this national showcase to continue to wear the colors of the Republicans? The answers vary depending on the assumptions. The worst, for LR, would be a qualification of Éric Zemmour against the outgoing president. In this case, the traditional right would be threatened. ‘Disappearance’, ‘explosion’, ‘explosion’, warn those who anticipate a split in the LR group into three currents, between those who will stay in the house and those who will go to Zemmour or Macron. »
Another more credible hypothesis: confirmation of the Macron-Le Pen duel. » « In this case, it would be a lesser evil for the right, valued Le Figaro. A new failure in April would obviously be another disaster for Les Républicains, but, with Le Pen in the second round, they think they can save the furniture from a political force that they consider to be sufficiently anchored to resist a new ‘shock’. »
Towards a “democratic shock”?
To return to the presidential Opinion said to expect a ” democratic shock “: “ a poisonous combination of record abstention and anti-system voting at an unprecedented level. “Indeed, specifies the liberal daily, “ 21 days before the first round, never had so many voters considered a civic strike, to the point of sinking the historic disinterest of 2002 (28% abstention in the first round). And never had the ‘protesting’ candidates crossed so widely, all together, the 50% threshold. »