PARIS, Aril 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French President Emmanuel Macron and far-right challenger Marine Le Pen made final appeals on Friday to undecided voters weighing fears of what a Le Pen presidency could bring against their anger at Macron’s record.
According to the latest surveys for Sunday’s run-off, fear may win the day over loathing: Macron the centrist, pro-European incumbent leads his anti-immigration, eurosceptic challenger by 10 to 14 points, well outside margins of error.
But the fact that nearly three in 10 voters say that they will not vote or have not made up their minds means that a surprise Le Pen win similar to events such as Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as United States president cannot entirely be ruled out.
Wrapping up his campaign in the postcard-pretty medieval village of Figeac in southern France, Macron told voters that Sunday was no less than a plebiscite on the country’s future.
“Apr 24 will be a referendum for or against Europe – we want Europe,” he said. “Apr 24 will be a referendum for or against a secular, united, indivisible France … we are for.”
Surveys by France’s leading pollsters published on Thursday and Friday showed Macron’s score was either stable or slightly rising to reach between 55.5 per cent and 57.5 per cent.
But they also put turnout at between 72 per cent and 74 per cent, which would be the lowest for a presidential run-off since 1969.
“There is a risk that all of a sudden a section of the electorate wakes up which we haven’t been able to measure,” Jean-Daniel Levy of Harris Interactive polling told Reuters.
“But the risk seems limited because this is a two-round system,” he said, contrasting that to the shocks of Brexit and Trump’s victory produced by single-round votes.
In the central city of Auxerre – which over the years has been an accurate bellwether of presidential outcomes – some voters such as Marc Venner, a retired telecoms worker, were rallying to Macron, albeit without enthusiasm.
“Our democratic and institutional system is on its last legs. No candidate can tackle the real problems,” Venner said. “We are a de-industrialised country, a country in decline.”
Ghislaine Madalie, a hairdresser with family roots in Morocco, said that she would switch to Macron on Sunday after voting for far-left Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round. But she said that some of her clients would vote for Le Pen as an anti-Macron protest.
“I find that disastrous because she is racist,” said Madalie, 36. “I am anxious, for me and for my children. I don’t understand this harassment (of Muslims), I don’t understand what she has against veiled women.”
Le Pen, whose policies include a ban on Muslim headscarves in public, giving French nationals priority on jobs and benefits, and limiting Europe’s rules on cross-border travel, says Macron embodies an elitism that has failed ordinary people.
That resonates for many on the streets of the former industrial north of France, a region which includes many Le Pen strongholds and where she has chosen to conclude her campaign.
Despite one of the world’s most generous welfare systems, massive support for French households during the COVID-19 pandemic and fuel bill caps to offset rising energy prices, the cost of living emerged as the top campaign issue of the election. — NNN-AGENCIES