Shortly before the French presidential election, Lepena’s ratings are approaching Macron / Article

The superiority of current French President Emanuel Macron over far-right nationalist candidate Marina Lepen has fallen to the brink of error in recent weeks. “As recently as 15 days ago, Macron had about 30% and Lepena about 20%. Today, they are within limits: 28% of French people plan to vote for Emmanuel Macron in the first round, and 24% for Lepen, ”said Ervan Lestrohan, director of the rating agency Odoxa Polling.

This is surprising given that Lepen has been proud of his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past. French society has also forgotten that the Lepena party received funding from sources close to the Kremlin.

Now Putin has become toxic not to Lepena, but to Macron, because Macron’s meeting with Putin and his regular calls to Putin have played a negative role in the election campaign: “Opponents now say: yes, so many phone calls, but what to achieve? He was not able to influence anything, “explained Christian Lekesne, a professor of European politics at Sciences-Po University.

Macron himself said: ‘We are living in a tragedy in Europe, a geopolitical and human tragedy. France has done everything in its power to avoid this, and we will continue to do so with new sanctions. “

The war in Ukraine initially helped raise Macron’s ratings, who actively sought a diplomatic solution. Now it doesn’t help anymore.

In addition, French society has not loved Macron’s elitism for a long time. “Macron is the first president of the Fifth Republic to have such a high level of rejection, I would even say, a level of hatred against Macron,” said Mark Lazar, director of the history center at Sciences-Po University.

Macro failed to attract ordinary people. He is still considered too isolated from real life in France. The people who took part in the so-called yellow vest protests against Macrona’s reforms a few years ago have not disappeared.

“Foreign policy is not and has never been one of the important topics in the French presidential election. What is important is inflation, wages are important, the issue of employment is important, ”said Professor Lekesne.

In the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in Paris, people are not asking themselves “will we be next?”. The French, unlike those in eastern Europe, know very well that they will not be next. As a result, the war in Ukraine is having less and less of an impact on the election results, leading to a rise in Lepena’s ratings.

“I will return France to the French people. It is up to the French to say who enters the country and who has to leave it, ”said Lepena.

In addition, experts pointed out that Lepen had said goodbye, at least externally, to the radical right, and he considers every word he says very carefully. Professor Lekesne pointed out: “In a way, she is more professional than she was in the 2017 campaign. But the ideas are the same. Ideas have not changed.

She is still a far-right candidate, but with a different tone. That is the strategy. ”

In the last twenty years, no French president has been re-elected. Twelve candidates are running for French presidency, and the next round of elections on Sunday is likely to take Macron and Lepén. However, which of them will win in the second round in two weeks is not so sure.

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