The presidential campaign was placed on Saturday under the sign of rallies on the right, Valérie Pécresse (LR) seeing herself dubbed by two small centrist parties, while Eric Zemmour (Reconquest) staged new supporters stolen from Marine Le Pen (RN ), fueling their merciless struggle.
On the left, Anne Hidalgo (PS), tested by the bad polls and the soap opera of the primaries, promised during her third big meeting, in Aubervilliers near Paris, not to “resign herself to the difficulty”.
While the political world speculates on the date of his declaration of candidacy, Emmanuel Macron continues to race ahead in the polls.
The outgoing president would get 25% in the first round if it took place on Sunday, ahead of Valérie Pécresse (LR) and Marine Le Pen (RN) tied at 15.5%, according to an Ipsos-Sopra Steria survey on Saturday for Le Monde, the Jean Jaurès Foundation and the Cevipof with more than 12,500 people.
In the second round, the quasi-candidate would win with 54% of the votes once morest Ms. Pécresse (46%), and 57% once morest Ms. Le Pen (43%).
Eric Zemmour (Reconquest), given 13% in the first round, campaigned on Saturday in Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes), on land which is a priori favorable to him.
He wandered for two hours without incident in the city, surrounded by a crowd of supporters.
– Collard with Zemmour –
And at the end of the day, he launched a “call for the union of the rights” in front of a room bringing together some 4,000 people, heated by his last take, the media MEP RN Gilbert Collard.
“You prefer your country to your party”, welcomed Eric Zemmour, while Gilbert Collard thanked the candidate “for having overthrown the worldly pedestal table of benevolence”.
The lawyer with easy verve attacked Emmanuel Macron, castigating “the reign of the illustrious pain in the neck”, but spared the candidate of the National Rally. “I have absolutely nothing once morest Marine Le Pen and I will never say anything once morest her,” he said in front of an audience acquired by Eric Zemmour.
The Le Pen camp affects for the moment to take high this new rallying of an RN official, following those of the MEP Jérôme Rivière and the former identitarian Damien Rieu.
The RN mayor of Perpignan Louis Aliot, one of the vice-presidents of the party, thus castigated on Twitter “the egos (which) overheat and the betrayals”. Many elected officials and RN activists also post photos of Marine Le Pen with the hashtag #loyalty.
Much more serene Saturday for the Republican candidate Valérie Pécresse, who staged the support of her centrist wing, following having consolidated her right side the day before by displaying her reunion with Laurent Wauquiez.
“My project is on the right, it is breaking, but it is 100% compatible with your values”, assured the candidate LR before the small party Les Centristes, whose president Hervé Morin is already part of his campaign team.
It was then invested by the National Council of the UDI. Its president Jean-Christophe Lagarde called on it on Friday to “bring together the right and the center and seek out voters who vote Macron”.
– “In your dreams!” –
Weighed down by the polls – 3.5% of voting intentions for Ipsos-Sopra Steria -, the socialist Anne Hidalgo adopted an offensive tone to rally the energies of the good thousand people who came to listen to her in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint -Denis), the same figure as at its two previous meetings, in Lille and Perpignan.
“In your dreams!” It is with these words that the mayor of Paris sharply responded to the “prophets of doom” who would like her to “resign herself to the difficulty” of the PS campaign.
“They all got into it, to push us aside (…) and whistle the end of the match even before kick-off”, she denounced, targeting “the vindictive chorus of the conservatives”, but also , in a veiled reproach once morest the LFI candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, “a part of the left which claims to be fighting the right but above all dreams of the disappearance of social democracy”.
Ms. Hidalgo repeated once once more on Friday that she would take “no account” of the result of the popular primary, a citizens’ initiative aimed at deciding between left-wing candidates, which is to reveal on Sunday evening the final number of people registered to vote there, from January 27 to 30. They already claimed Friday evening 352,000 registered.