French President Emmanuel Macron’s lead in polls for the second round of the April 24 presidential election continued to widen on Tuesday, with three polls taking him to the highest level since the first round.
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An Ipsos poll showed Macron winning with 56.5% of the vote, up 0.5 points from Friday and 3.5 points up from 53% on April 8, two days before the first round in which Macron and farright candidate Marine Le Pen advanced to the second round.
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In an Opinionway poll, Macron received 56% of the vote, up 2 points from Friday. In an Ifop poll, support for Macron’s voting intentions rose to 55%, 0.5 points higher than Monday and 3 points higher than April 8.
1 of 3 A man looks at posters of French presidential candidates Emanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen on April 11, 2022 Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP
A man looks at posters of French presidential candidates Emanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen on April 11, 2022 Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP
Macron’s average score across the three polls rose to 55.83%, up more than 3 points from an average of 52.7% across five polls on April 8.
Macron won the 2017 election with 66.1% of the vote, also beating Le Pen, but the race is much closer now as Macron faces criticism for his handling of the Covid19 crisis and economic policies.
Debate between the two candidates
The two booked this Tuesday (19th) to prepare for Wednesday’s (20th) crucial televised debate, hoping to tip the balance of the President in their favor five days before the second round in France.
“I will prepare for the debate at home, as I do for all debates,” said Marine Le Pen, who met with voters in Normandy in the northwest of the country on Monday before facing the final leg of her third presidential campaign.
2 of 3 Farright candidate Marine Le Pen speaks at her party’s headquarters in Paris this Sunday (10). — Photo: Francois Mori/AP
The farright candidate Marine Le Pen will speak at her party’s headquarters in Paris on Sunday (10 October). — Photo: Francois Mori/AP
The 2017 debate was terrible for the farright candidate, who was criticized for being aggressive and unprepared for the occasion. A few days later, she admitted a strategic mistake, a mea culpa that she is repeating in the current election campaign.
Macron took advantage of Easter Monday, a public holiday in France, to give three interviews to radio and television stations, in which he drew attention to two issues: abstention and the consequences of a possible seizure of power by the extreme right.
“Think about what British citizens were saying a few hours before Brexit, or in the United States before the vote on (Donald) Trump: ‘I’m not going to vote, what’s the point?’ I can say that they regretted it the next day,” he told France 5.
Macron has tried to characterize Le Pen as radical. In the first round, she managed to avoid the image of radical politics by avoiding issues such as migration or security.
After a discreet first round in which she presented herself as a defender of purchasing power, Le Pen, 53, is now trying to reassure the French about their eventual government. For example, she claims that she will lead France as a “family mother”.
The debate, scheduled for Wednesday evening, will be moderated by journalists Gilles Bouleau from the private channel TF1 and Léa Salamé from the public channel France 2.
This will be the first of those elections that Macron, who refused to meet with rivals in the first round, will take part in.
candidates left behind
The candidates want to win supporters of the leftist JeanLuc Mélenchon, who received the third most vote in the first round with 21.9% and urged his electorate not to vote for Le Pen, but without directly voting for Macron.
Based on this appeal, a poll of more than 200,000 people supporting Mélenchon’s candidacy found that twothirds voted zero, blank or abstain in the second ballot. The remaining third supported the vote for the current President.
3 of 3 Emmanuel Macron arrives this Sunday 10th to deliver his speech at the campaign headquarters in Paris. — Photo: Thibault Camus/AP
Emmanuel Macron arrives this Sunday 10th to deliver his speech at the campaign headquarters in Paris. — Photo: Thibault Camus/AP
To convince them, Macron took a step back on his main proposal raising the minimum retirement age from 62 to 65. The day after the first round, he agreed to raise it to 64 years.
He’s also trying to shed the image of the “president of the rich” and has been presenting himself as someone close to him for the past few weeks. One of the most recent demonstrations is a shirtless photo lying on a sofa after a rally in Marseille.
Most of the candidates who lost in the first ballot wanted to vote for Macron or against Le Pen. The latter also has the rejection of unions, athletes and actors
Five days before the second round, the President received the support of his father JeanMichel Macron, who said in an interview with the newspaper “L’Est républicain” that he had “very great admiration” for his son and that the French is ” very ungrateful” about his first term.
Should Macron be reelected, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that he would step down from the government a few days later without waiting for the general elections in May, because he said a “new impetus” was needed.