While the Hungarian people have gone to the polls, the rush in the French election campaign has intensified.
Two months ago, opinion polls showed that President Emmanuel Macron was poised to win a presidential election against right-wing Marine Le Pen with 60 percent support. Now the management has shrunk sharply.
This weekend’s new opinion polls show that support is 53 percent, a lead of only six percentage points. In the polls, voters are asked who they will vote for if Macron and Le Pen advance to the second round. France’s electoral system allows a candidate to win the election if he scores more than 50 percent in the first round. If no one does, then the two candidates with the highest support go on to the second round.
Macron won the second round against Le Pen in 2017 with just over 66 percent of the vote.
HOMAGE: French President Emmanuel Macron showed his support for the Ukrainian people and condemned Russia’s invasion. Video: AP view more
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– See what happened
Although Macron is still the big favorite to win, he has gone out and warned the people against taking the election result – and a stable and peaceful France – for granted.
– The danger of extremism has reached new heights, because in recent months and years we have seen hatred and alternative truths become normalized. Just look at what happened with Brexit and in so many other elections. What looked unlikely actually happened, Macron said during a speech this weekend.
The meeting was the president’s first and only voter meeting before the April 10 election.
– Do not believe in the polls. Do not believe the commentators. Do not believe those who say it is impossible or unthinkable. Look at us. Look at you. Five years ago, people said it was impossible. Look at Brexit and how many choices Britain had, where it would apparently never be implemented, Macron urged, according to Financial Times.
The imminent election could put an end to the popular president as the country’s leader after just one term. Opinion polls rose sharply for Macron in the first weeks of the war in Ukraine. The president was seen as a confident leader in a time of conflict.
Since then, the wind has turned. This is despite Macron’s leading role in the imposition of sanctions against Russia and the fact that the war is still in full swing.
Some of the parties have also tried to refute the image of Macron as a confident leader. Among them is Eric Zemmour, who is considered even more right-wing than Le Pen.
At an election rally in Paris, he claimed that France would become “a large Lebanon marked by corruption, misery, Islamization and violence” if he did not win the election himself. During the meeting, the audience began shouting “Murder Macron.”
Zemmour is now far behind Le Pen, and it has not helped him that Russia invaded Ukraine. Recently, several of his earlier statements, in which he expresses great admiration for Vladimir Putin, have appeared on social media. Among other things, he has stated that he dreams of “a French Putin” and that Ukraine does not exist.
SHOOTS: This video posted on social media will show the moment a Russian tank in Mariupol is shelled from above. view more
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– Falling apart
In the months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, France’s assessments of the situation stood in contrast to the gloomy predictions from allied countries, which warned that a military attack was imminent. Macron kept diplomacy going until the very end, and also traveled to Moscow to meet with Putin in person.
In contrast to Le Pen, Macron has assured that relations and ties with both Europe and the EU are strong, both in terms of defense, environment and economy.
– The peaceful world that we were used to believing would last forever, which we thought was unstoppable, it seems to fall apart before our eyes, Macron said at the election conference in front of 30,000 people present.
