PARIS – A day after Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, emerged as his challenger to the final round of the French presidential election in less than two weeks, President Emmanuel Macron immediately began building the “dam” on Monday.
Dams are the mainstream French voters who, time and again, have put aside political disagreements in the second round and voted for everyone but one Le Pen in a so-called “Republican front” to deny the far right the presidency.
But after Sunday’s first round, when 32 percent of French voters supported far-right candidates — a record – the dam may be more precarious than ever.
Mr Macron, widely criticized for a lackluster campaign, sprang into action on Monday to back it up, challenging Ms Le Pen and her party, the National Rally, directly in the economically backward north where it dominated Sunday.
In Denain, a town won by Ms Le Pen, Mr Macron spoke about the concerns of the young people in Denain and other social issues. He tried to remind voters of the extremist roots of Ms Le Pen’s party, calling its old name the National Front.
During her own campaign stop in a rural area, Yonne, Ms Le Pen said the dam was an unfair strategy to win an election, adding that “it’s one way to save yourself if you don’t do it.” deserves.”
In a triumphant speech against the majestic backdrop of the Louvre Museum five years ago, Mr Macron had launched his presidency by promising to unite the French so that “there would be no reason at all to vote for the extremes”.
But alongside Ms Le Pen’s second-place finish, with 23 percent of the vote, left-wing veteran Jean-Luc Mélenchon won 22 percent of Sunday’s vote to take a strong third place.
Mélenchon’s supporters – divided in their attitudes towards Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen – could now help determine the final outcome of the April 24 election.
After five years of Mr Macron beating Ms Le Pen in the second round of 2017, the far-right leader emerged stronger than ever. She has softened her image in a successful process of “demonizing” and relentlessly targeting the economic hardship of ordinary voters.
In Yonne, Mrs. Le Pen hammered away at the themes that took her to the second round. During a meeting with a grain farmer, she told how rising fuel and fertilizer prices after the war in Ukraine would increase the cost of staples in supermarkets and harm the most vulnerable.
The record performance of the far right on Sunday was the result of a combination of factors, including Ms Le Pen’s own efforts to refresh her image, a successful cultural struggle waged by conservative forces in recent years, and a series of Islamist attacks in France since 2015.
But critics say it also reflected Macron’s ongoing strategy to triangulate France’s electoral landscape. While Mr Macron was considered a centre-left candidate five years ago, he shifted to the right during his presidency as he felt his main challenge would come from Ms Le Pen.
That shift was embodied in a series of laws that tightened France’s stance on immigration, empowered the police and combated Islamist extremism. Many working French also felt that his economic policies unfairly favored the wealthy and left them more adrift.
If Mr Macron’s intent was to defuse Ms Le Pen’s appeal by ridding her of her core problems, critics say the approach backfired by bringing the talking points of the far right deeper into mainstream political debate.
Ms. Le Pen then shifted her message to wallet matters that are now even more widespread now that energy prices are peaking as a result of the war in Ukraine.
Sacha Houlié, a lawmaker and spokesperson for Mr Macron’s campaign, said the president was aiming to strengthen the drafts strategy. He acknowledged that “some mistakes” and “gaps” had been made, noting that some ministers had picked up on themes and phrases promoted by the far right.
But Mr Houlié denied that Mr Macron had normalized far-right ideas and said his government had mainly tried to respond to people’s growing concerns about crime and immigration. “We can’t sweep the dust under the rug,” he said, referring to the problems.
But many, especially Mélenchon’s supporters on the left, feel so betrayed that Macron may have a harder time convincing them to join his call for unity in this next election by building a dam against Mrs Le Pen, who the president has mentioned a danger to democracy.
Alexis Lévrier, a historian who has written about Mr Macron’s relations with the news media, said that when Mr Macron tried to reform French politics around a strict division between his mainstream movement and Ms Le Pen, he “contributed to the rise of power of the far right.”
“He’s unconsciously a pyromaniac firefighter,” said Mr. Levrier.
Stéphanie Noury, a native of Guyancourt — an affluent, left-wing town southwest of Paris where Mélenchon entered the first Sunday — said she gave Mr Macron her vote in 2017 as part of a dam against the far right. But this time she planned to stay home for the final round.
“Macron played into the hands of the far right,” said Ms Noury, 55, a human resources manager who voted for Mr Mélenchon on Sunday. “He told himself he would always win against the far right.”
Compared to 2017, Ms Le Pen’s share rose a few percentage points in the first round, despite direct challenge from a new rival, far-right TV pundit Éric Zemmour, who urged his supporters to vote for Ms Le Pen. Le Pen in the coming confrontation.
On Sunday, Ms Le Pen, Mr Zemmour and a third far-right candidate, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, received 32 percent of the vote. In 2017, Ms Le Pen and Mr Dupont-Aignan collected 26 percent in the first round.
Voters first formed a barrier against the far right in 2002 when Ms Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, shocked the political establishment by turning it into a runoff against Jacques Chirac. Another dam helped beat Ms. Le Pen in 2017.
To give credibility to the right, in 2019 Mr Macron gave his first long interview on the sensitive issues of immigration and Islam to Valeurs Actuelles, a magazine that spans the right and the far right.
“Speaking to us, Emmanuel Macron came looking for some legitimacy on these topics, from right-wing people who felt he was doing nothing,” said Geoffroy Lejeune, the publication’s editor. “He knows that he is sending a big signal with this.”
Aurélien Taché, a lawmaker who was once an ally of Macron, said the president was elected in 2017 thanks to voters who put aside their political differences and united against Ms Le Pen.
He said Mr Macron should have taken those votes – mainly from the left – to be taken into account later in its policy.
“He didn’t take them into account,” he said, adding that Mr Macron instead worked to set up “this rift between him and Ms Le Pen, leading to a “high-risk rematch”.
“Very strong concessions have been made to the far right on a whole range of issues,” said Mr Taché, also referring to stricter immigration rules and the application of a stricter version of French secularism called laïcité.
But Mr Taché, who left Mr Macron’s party in 2020 due to the president’s shift to the right, was especially critical of the government’s groundbreaking law against separatism, which is criticized inside and outside France, including by the US Envoy for International Religious Freedom.
The law amounted to “making Islam and Muslims invisible,” said Mr. said Tache.
Some academics, political opponents and Muslim organizations have also criticized the law as: discrimination against French Muslims by leading to the widespread closure of mosques, Muslim associations and schools.
That resentment may now also complicate Mr Macron’s efforts to build dams.
For example, to be re-elected this time around, he will have to convince voters in places like Trappes, a working-class town with a large Muslim population southwest of Paris, to join the dam against Ms. Le Pen.
Trappes has long been a stronghold of Mélenchon supporters, backing Mr Macron strongly in the 2017 runoff election. But comments from voters on Sunday suggested the dam might not be as effective this time around.
Frédéric Renan, 47, a computer programmer, said he would abstain or cast a blank vote in a confrontation between Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen.
“Macron opened the door to the far right,” Renan said, adding that the president’s economic policies hurt the poor and fueled the rise of the far right.
“I don’t see how voting for Macron is a vote in a dam against the far right,” he said. “Some people will say that not joining the barrier against the far right is irresponsible, that the threat from the far right is greater than what Emmanuel Macron is proposing, but I am not convinced.”
Adele Cordonnier reporting contributed.
