Ten minutes to convince voters… not to abstain in the first round. Presidential favorites Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen clashed remotely on Wednesday evening on TF1 when, according to polls, the gap between the two shrinks to a trickleeach insisting on the purchasing power of the French.
This quirky duel comes at the very end of an unprecedented campaign, tossed between the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine, four days before an undecided ballot and which could be marked by high abstention, approaching or exceeding the 2002 record (28 .4%). The outgoing president and then his far-right rival spoke one after the other on TF1’s 8:00 p.m. Ten minutes to convince.
Fight against inflation
Asked what their first measure would be if they were elected on April 24, each mentioned the maintenance of purchasing power undermined by the war in Ukraine and the surge in energy prices in particular, as well as the inflation. For Emmanuel Macron, it will be a question of “maintaining a shield for the price of gas and electricity”, and of indexing retirement pensions to inflation “from this summer”.
For her part, Marine Le Pen indicated that her first measure if she acceded to the Elysée would be “to lower VAT from 20 to 5.5% on all energy” and to create “a basket of products necessities” with 0% VAT. At the same time, on France 2, the outsider Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in third place in the polls, said he wanted, if elected, to requisition French stocks of cereals, whose production is threatened.
Recall of the Ambassador to Russia
Asked about the conflict in Ukraine, the outgoing president, who now systematically attacks the far right, described as “unfounded” and “scandalous” the criticisms of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on his telephone conversations with Vladimir Putin. “These remarks are both unfounded and scandalous, but they do not surprise me” because Morawiecki, supported by “a far-right party”, “interferes in the French political campaign” after having “several times received Madame (Marine) Le Pen”, which he “supports”, declared the president-candidate.
The RN candidate for her part called for the recall of the French ambassador to Russia as a sign of firmness vis-à-vis Moscow, suspected of having committed massacres in Ukraine.
Within the margin of error
Marine Le Pen is steadily rising in voting intentions, reaching 23.5% for the first time against 27% for Emmanuel Macron, according to an Ifop poll published on Wednesday. Another Ipsos poll, also published on Wednesday, places Marine Le Pen at 22% against 27% for the outgoing president. And for the very first time in a poll of second tour in front of Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen was evaluated at 48.5% in a survey by the Harris Interactive Institute published on Monday. It succeeds another, published by Elabe, giving it 47.5%, two figures that place it within the margin of error.
This “tightening of the poll is of concern”, comments a close friend of the president-candidate. “We have closed our eyes too much to Marine Le Pen. Is it too late? Maybe, but I don’t think so. Electroshock is useful”.
As for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, he cherishes the hope of interfering in this duel announced as he showed it Tuesday during a meeting in Lille relayed in eleven cities thanks to holograms. Not so simple, retorts the socialist Anne Hidalgo who warned Wednesday during a trip to Cachan, in the Parisian suburbs, against a useful vote which would be “imposed” on the French.