PARIS (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Following is a brief summary on the latest happenings in the presidential elections of France.
1. Ten days before the second round of the presidential election, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen are continuing their campaign between interviews, meetings and campaign trips.
2. “We have never had a president who has shown as much authoritarianism as Emmanuel Macron”, judged Marine Le Pen this morning on France 2. She responds to accusations of “authoritarian drift” and qualifies the outgoing president “a man of the brutal repression of all demonstrations”.
3. Emmanuel Macron is expected in Le Havre at midday. The candidate is to meet the former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe who has already formalised his support for the outgoing president. But the one who is seeking a second term has bigger plans for the Norman mayor and wants him to join a large Partisan and Macronist gathering.
4. Marine Le Pen will be at a meeting in Avignon at the end of the day and will deliver a speech at 6:30 p.m. The candidate has made a series of missteps in recent days by opposing the presence of Daily journalists at her press conference on Tuesday and with the expulsion of an environmental activist who came to disrupt yesterday’s conference.
5. François Hollande is the guest of the 20 Hours of TF1 this evening, he should call to vote for Emmanuel Macron according to the confidences of a close friend of the former head of state at Franceinfo.
6. Jean-Luc Mélenchon refrains from giving voting instructions but he renews his call for the evening of the first round: “I said and I repeat that not a voice should be cast on the far-right candidate”. Yesterday, the Insoumis launched a consultation with the militants of France Insoumise, aiming to determine a course of action for the second round of the presidential election: they have the choice between Macron, blank or null vote and abstention.
7. The OpinionWay poll for CNEWS, published on Wednesday April 13, credits Emmanuel Macron with 53% of voting intentions in the second round of the presidential election, and Marine Le Pen with 47%.
Emmanuel Macron is in Le Havre
The president-candidate arrived at the beginning of the afternoon in the city of his former Prime Minister and supporter, Edouard Philippe, who welcomed him there. He was expected by many residents, supporters and opponents. The theme of his visit is ecology: “When we talk about ecology, we create jobs”, he said on his arrival. Le Havre voted more than 30% for Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round of the presidential election, and 27.5% for Emmanuel Macron. It is therefore, for the latter, to convince the left to grant him his vote for the second round.
Elisabeth Borne, future prime minister of Emmanuel Macron? The rumour grows
New relatives of the outgoing president confided in Point on the possibility of seeing Elisabeth Borne at Matignon, in the event of a second Macron term. The current Minister of Labor “is a woman, polytechnician, she comes from the left, communicates little, she will be Prime Minister if Macron wins”, affirms an ex-LR rallied to LREM. “The two impossible reforms carried out during this five-year term, those of the SNCF and unemployment insurance, that’s her”, recalls another support from the president-candidate.
Jean Castex is visiting Reunion
The Prime Minister goes to Reunion to support candidate Emmanuel Macron in the presidential election. Upon his arrival, Jean Castex declared to the press his wish to address “those who voted for Jean-Luc Mélenchon” (40.3% in this region) and “abstainers” during his stay. He quickly tackled his camp’s opponent, Marine Le Pen, maintaining that “Reunion is a land of differences, of cohabitation, of openness. We cannot choose to withdraw.”
Jordan Bardella reacts to the email from the president of the University of Nantes
The president of the National Rally, supporting Marine Le Pen for the presidential election, strongly criticised on Twitter the call to “block” the “National Rally”, addressed by the director to the students and staff of the Nantes university . “The position taken by the president of the University of Nantes, in violation of the rules of neutrality imposed by her position, is a shameful mistake”, writes Jordan Bardella: “The students have the right to make their own decision. Be free : don’t let Emmanuel Macron’s friends dictate your choices!”
The president of the University of Nantes calls on her students to “block the far right”
“Because the foundations of our society are in question, I solemnly call on you to vote on April 24 to block the far right and therefore the National Rally”, wrote Carine Bernault, in an email sent Wednesday April 13 to 42000 students and 4000 staff from the University of Nantes, which AFP obtained. “Whatever the result on April 24, you can count on my commitment to defend our values,” continues the president. A process which was quickly condemned, in particular by Senator LR from Loire-Atlantique Laurence Garnier, for whom “the use of student files for electoral purposes by its president is completely inappropriate”.
