Paris:
French President Emmanuel Macron called on tens of thousands of cheering but increasingly nervous supporters to help him win a second term as he ran his first election campaign on Saturday, just a week after the vote started.
According to polls, far-right rival Marine Le Pen is gaining momentum and threatening what once seemed an almost unassailable position of power for Macron, a pro-business centrist elected in 2017.
“The mobilization is now, the battle is now!” for example, Macron concluded a two-and-a-half-hour speech in a stadium west of the capital. “I don’t want arrogance or defeatism, I want general mobilization.”
He called the election a battle between his camp in the political mainstream and far-right “extremists,” calling it “a battle between progress and return, a battle between patriotism and Europe, and nationalism.”
In keeping with claims that the rally would be modeled after sporting events, the 44-year-old entered the room to pumping music and fireworks before heading to a stage set up like a boxing ring in the center of the floor.
He spent most of his speech reflecting on what he considered to be his greatest achievements in office — lower unemployment and taxes, increased security spending — and his plans for a second five-year term.
But the conclusion saw him target anti-immigration Le Pen and far-right former TV pundit Eric Zemmour — without ever mentioning them.
“The danger of extremism has reached new heights as hatred and alternative truths have normalized in recent months and years. We have become used to it,” he warned.
Slow campaign
Two new polls released on Saturday suggested Macron and Le Pen would top the first round of voting on April 10, with Macron winning 53-47 percent in the second round on April 24.
“Look at what happened with Brexit and so many other elections: what looked unlikely has actually happened,” Macron warned, referring to Britain’s shocking decision to leave the EU in 2016, that most pollsters don’t. had provided.
“I tell you here tonight with great certainty: nothing is impossible,” he added.
Among those in the crowd, a mix of all ages, mostly drawn from France’s professional and educated classes, most expressed confidence that Macron would prevail, despite last week’s momentum in Le Pen’s favour.
But the increasingly thin projected margin of victory has increased pressure on the head of state, with his aides promising several stops in the country next week.
He has barely campaigned so far, focusing on diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine, while Le Pen pacified the country, promising measures to help low-income households.
“His campaign was a little weak. It started a little late,” said Paul Reynaud, who wore a Macron t-shirt with his slogan “With You” written on it at Saturday’s event.
“He’s played the president a little too much and not enough the candidate,” added the 23-year-old, who said he was interning at a management consultancy.
He called his employer with an embarrassed smile, acknowledging the problems the management advisers have created for the president over the past two weeks.
Macron’s opponents have relentlessly attacked him on the basis of record spending on consultants like McKinsey during his five-year term, revealed in a Senate inquiry last month.
Le Pen Optimism
Le Pen, who lost to Macron in the second round of the 2017 polls, has tried to build a more moderate image for this election, helped by Zemmour’s emergence as a fellow far-right candidate.
While Zemmour risks getting votes from Le Pen in the first round, his more radical stances on immigration and Islam have helped her appear more mainstream, experts say.
“We feel it on the ground, there is a great dynamic, a hope that is emerging as the campaign nears its end,” she said on Friday during a visit to eastern France.
The left’s biggest hope is former Trotskyist Jean-Luc Melenchon, who will finish third on current trends in most polls.
The far-left leader, known as a shrewd campaigner and strong speaker, will address an open-air rally in the southern French city of Toulouse on Sunday.
The first round threatens to be a disaster for the two traditional French government parties, the right-wing Republicans and the left-wing socialists.
Republican candidate Valerie Pecresse is currently in fourth or fifth place, while socialist Anne Hidalgo could finish at about 2.0 percent.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)