the battle hardens between Macron and Le Pen

They won’t be face to face, but their faces could well be the ones that come out first on Sunday evening: the favorites of the presidential first round, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, face off from a distance on Wednesday in the media when , according to polls, the gap between the two is shrinking.

Four days before the election, the outgoing president and his far-right rival must participate in TF1’s 8 p.m. program, “10 minutes to convince”, Mr. Macron having to come first. They will be in turn questioned about the first hundred days of their presidency, if they are elected on April 24, and their first decisions or symbolic gestures as head of state.

Coincidence of programming? This may be one of the highlights of this presidential campaign when the two opponents could, if the French decide on Sunday, live their return match from 2017.

The National Rally candidate, with an ever more civilized tone, is making a slow but steady rise in the first round voting intention polls, now being credited with 23% against 28% for the outgoing president, according to an Elabe poll published on Tuesday. evening.

Another Kantar-Epoka poll, also on Tuesday evening, places him similarly at 23%, just behind the president-candidate at 25%, a fall of four points for him in two weeks.

Mr. Macron has certainly benefited with the war in Ukraine from the “flag effect” making him gain 5 to 6 points in the polls, to more than 30% three weeks ago.

But he takes a possible victory for Ms. Le Pen seriously and this explains his offensive against the candidate and his positioning as a bulwark against extremes. He also insists, like Tuesday in Brittany, on his European fiber, as opposed to the candidate RN.

For her part, Marine Le Pen is cautious, wishing to avoid any missteps so as not to break her upward momentum.

It has canceled several events this week, including a trip to Ile-de-France on Wednesday, and is preparing for its last major meeting on conquered ground, Thursday in Perpignan.

“You have to save yourself” and manage the pace, assures a senior campaign official. Marine Le Pen herself admitted having come to the end of the line in the first round during her campaign in 2017, then beaten by Mr. Macron after a televised debate deemed a failure.

As for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in third place in the polls at 16%, he cherishes the hope of interfering between this announced duo as he showed on Tuesday evening during a meeting in Lille relayed in eleven cities thanks to holograms.

– 72 hours flat –

Three more days to campaign.

The candidates, who must invade the morning shows on Wednesday morning, thus throw their last forces into the battle seeking both to galvanize their troops and convince the many undecided.

Especially since a record abstention – around 30% according to some polls – hovers over the presidential election.

The penultimate day of the campaign, Thursday, alone concentrates seven meetings: those of Valérie Pécresse (LR) in Lyon, Marine Le Pen in Perpignan, Fabien Roussel (PCF) in Lille, Philippe Poutou (NPA) in Toulouse , Anne Hidalgo (PS) in Rouen and Yannick Jadot (EELV) in Nantes, as well as Eric Zemmour (Reconquest!) at the Palais des Sports in Paris.

The NDA candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan is organizing a meeting for him on Wednesday evening in Paris, while at the opposite end of the chessboard Philippe Poutou (NPA) will be in Bordeaux.

Media blitz, trips – Mr. Jadot will be in Alsace on Wednesday, Mr. Roussel in Gentilly – and meetings, this campaign like no other crushed by the Covid-19 pandemic then the war in Ukraine will end Friday at midnight. It will then be prohibited to campaign or publish polls until Sunday 8 p.m., when the first estimates will be known.

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