The two favorites in the first round of the French presidential election, incumbent President Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, are vying from a distance in the media on Wednesday as the gap in opinion polls narrows slightly between them.
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Four days before the election, Mr Macron, who entered the campaign late, and his rival must take part in a Wednesday evening program on TF1 called “10 Minutes to Persuasion”. They will in turn be questioned about the first 100 days of their presidency, if elected on April 24, and their first decisions.
The poll struggles to capture voter interest: a record abstention – about 30% according to some polls – is swirling around this presidential election.
Although pushed largely against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, the elections, which have 12 candidates, nonetheless include crucial issues, both nationally and internationally, France still holds a heavy position in the European Union, which it currently chairs.
Facing a split left and right stagnating, polls for weeks have suggested first-round qualifications from Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.
The candidate of the National Rally (RN), who has smoothed her image and softened some proposals without changing the substance of her project on immigration, is steadily increasing in voting intentions, reaching 21.5%, with an acceleration in the house stretch (+4 points in two weeks), according to a poll by Ipsos/ Sopra Steria published on Wednesday.
It is five points behind Mr Macron (who stands at 26.5%), but far ahead of radical left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is also up (16%).
Satisfaction with Russia
Mr Macron has benefited from the war in Ukraine from a “flag effect” that in the first round brought him more than 30% in polls three weeks ago, with the frontrunner emerging in the second round.
But now its rating has shrunk to number one, and the gap has narrowed to second with Marine Le Pen, according to polls published on Tuesday: 56% against 44% for Ipsos Supra-Styria and 53% against 47%, according to Ilap. .
In this context, Mr. Macron has launched an attack against Ms. Le Pen in recent days, positioning himself as a bulwark against extremism and underlining its European fabric.
He also denounced “the complacency of some candidates towards Vladimir Putin” without naming them.
Far-right candidates Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, as well as Jean-Luc Mélenchon, have been criticized for their pro-Russian stances.
Emmanuel Macron, who is often accused of being the president of the wealthy, is facing a sharp controversy, caused by the public authorities’ resort to expensive services from private consulting firms, in particular from the American firm McKinsey.
French justice opened a preliminary investigation on March 31 for aggravated money laundering for tax evasion after a report by the Senate on the impact of these companies on public policy.
– The McKinsey case – The Senate’s investigative committee confirmed that contracts the state had with consulting firms “more than doubled” between 2018 and 2021, reaching a record amount of more than one billion euros in 2021.
It also accused McKinsey’s French entities of “tax optimization,” which would have led them to pay no corporate taxes between 2011 and 2020.
The opposition, which has repeatedly called for an investigation, welcomed Wednesday’s announcement from the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office.
“This consulting firm will pay what it has to pay,” said government spokesman Gabriel Attal.
Wanting to avoid any slips so as not to break her upward momentum, Ms. Le Pen has canceled several events this week. It is preparing for its last big meeting on the occupied territory, Thursday in Perpignan (south).
As for the candidate of the radical left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, he wishes to intervene in this announced duo, stressing that the scenario of the second round between Mr. Macron and Ms. Le Pen “will not happen.”
