Hidalgo, Jadot and Roussel called to Vote for Macron in the second round. Pécresse said he would vote for the current president. Mélenchon avoided giving a slogan in favor of Macron or saying who he will vote for, but repeated three times to his followers: “Not a single vote should be given to Mrs. Le Pen.” Zemmour called Le Pen to vote.
It is the first time, since 1981, that a final is repeated. That year the Socialist François Mitterrand Beat President Valéry Giscard D’Estaing, having lost to him seven years earlier.
In 2002, presidential terms were increased from seven to five years. Since the mandate was shortened, no incumbent president has been re-elected. Nicolas Sarkozy lost to François Hollande and, five years later, he gave up on running again.
But now Macron leaves with a much more comfortable position than any of his predecessors had enjoyed since Mitterrand in 1988 against Jacques Chirac. And his advantage over Le Pen is higher than in 2017. In the first round, the current president won with 24.01% of the vote. Le Pen took out 21.3%.
At the same time, Le Pen improves on her result from five years ago. If Zemmour’s are added to his votes, he approaches a third of the electorate. And if you add the votes of the extreme right to those of the populist left – at the other end of the ideological spectrum, but skeptical of the EU and NATO, and with proposals that challenge the status quo – they add up to almost half the votes.
A landscape is drawn in France with a broad center of the system and the consensus that have dominated since the post-war period, and a two-headed opposition that questions this system.
After the first round, which leaves the remaining 10 candidates eliminated, a new campaign begins. For two weeks, the two qualifiers will have to convince the voters.
The most qualified to lead a central country in the European Union, equipped with a nuclear bomb and with a permanent seat in the Council for the next few years. UN Security. With Macron and Le Pen as finalists, a clash between opposing models for France and Europe will be raised in the campaign for the second round.
A key moment will be the televised debate on April 20. In 2017, Le Pen came out of the debate against Macron very badly due to her lack of preparation and mastery of the issues.
Le Pen, daughter of ultra patriarch Jean-Marie Le Pen, is the third time she has run for a presidential election and the second time she has reached the second round.
The candidate her promises a profound reformulation of France’s relationship with the EU, an alliance with Russia and a constitutional change that would give her a free hand to apply tougher policies against immigrants and would reduce the rights of foreigners living in France.
Her campaign has focused not on traditional far-right issues like identity, immigration or insecurity, but on price hikes and measures to raise wages and make ends meet.
