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PARIS, 5th April (RHC) President Emmanuel Macron defended his project to connect France well with the European Union (EU) to respond to challenges, five days before the elections in which he is seeking re-election.
During a visit to the town of Spézet in the north-western department of Finisterre, the president sought to distance himself from candidates who he said “want to turn their backs on Europe”, particularly his main polling rival, far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
In his statements to local people, he urged the French to be European at all costs, arguing that moving away from the bloc would be disastrous in the face of challenges such as the need for energy and agricultural independence.
The EU, according to Macron, “protects us and guarantees us rights” and “allows us to reform a capitalism that has gone excessive and sometimes insane”.
Le Pen moderated her speech on the union of 27 member states but insists on reforming the Schengen area as a weapon to restrict free movement within it, in line with her anti-immigrant position, albeit less radical than in 2017, when she lost comfortably in the second round to the current president.
As in the elections five years ago, the head of state is presenting himself as the most pro-European, this time boosted by the unfavorable economic conditions of the Ukraine conflict.
In this context, Macron insisted that an attack on free movement within the EU would be devastating for tourism and would drive up the prices of imported products.
According to polls, the president has up to 28 percent of the voting intentions, followed by Le Pen with 22 to 23 percent, so a repeat of the 2017 runoff election seems inevitable.
The polls give Macron the favourite, but by a smaller margin than back then, a scenario confirmed today by an opinion survey by the Elabe Institute for the television channel BFM and the weekly newspaper l’Express, which reflected 53 percent approval in the second ballot 66, the gave him victory five years ago. (Source:PL)