France’s Emmanuel Macron steps up campaign against Marine Le Pen in far-right bastion
- Macron came out on top in Sunday’s first round of voting with 27.85 per cent, with Le Pen second at 23.15 per cent
- Macron is expected to target Le Pen’s past admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, an explosive issue during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Centrist President Emmanuel Macron headed on Monday to a blue-collar stronghold of his far-right rival Marine Le Pen, saying her economic promises were a fantasy, in a bid to convince sceptical voters there and beyond to give him a second mandate.
Macron is slightly ahead in polls for the presidential election’s runoff on April 24, but he faces a tough challenge from Le Pen, who has tapped into anger over the cost of living and a perception he is disconnected from everyday hardships.
Macron came out on top in Sunday’s first round of voting with 27.85 per cent, with Le Pen second at 23.15 per cent. As the top two finishers, they advance to a second round on April 24.
“I’m trying to make clear my programme is fair and socially-minded,” Macron said on a walkabout in Denain, one of the country’s poorest towns in its former industrial heartland.
In hours of sometimes heated exchanges, locals called him out on everything from his plans to push back the retirement age to the fact that he said at the height of the Omicron phase of the Covid-19 pandemic that he wanted to “piss off” anti-vaxxers.
