A leading French newspaper stirred the ruling party and sparked intense speculation about next year’s presidential election, suggesting that voters will not come to the aid of Emmanuel Macron if he finds himself in a rematch with the far right.
Left-wing votes propelled centrist Macron to power in 2017 in a second round against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, as well as helping Jacques Chirac in the 2002 election against Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie.
The Liberation newspaper report, based on reports from hundreds of readers, said that many left-wing voters would no longer support Macron to prevent Le Pen from taking power.
“I blocked it (the far right) in the past and this time it’s over,” said the shocking headline on Liberation’s front page on Saturday – a quote from one of the voters who told the newspaper that they could no longer vote for Macron, no matter what the cost. .
Polls predict that the 2022 election will be reduced to another duel between the two politicians who fought on a globalist versus nationalist platform in 2017.
But this time, they show Le Pen much closer to the corridors of power, with a Harris Interactive poll, which was never published, but leaked to the media last month, showing the leader of the National Rally with 48 percent of the votes in a race. with the holder.
An Ipsos-Steria poll in early February showed that her chances would be significantly increased by a massive refusal by left-wing voters if she faced Macron.
After the presidency of a single term of the socialist François Hollande – which ended in 2017 with him so unpopular that he decided not to run again – the left is not quoted to do the second round, with its votes divided between socialists, green and hard – left France did not bow.
– ‘Hurt and humiliated’ –
Some of Liberation’s readers accused the president, who campaigned as a centrist, but was accused of turning to the right, of acting as a “president of the rich” – a label that dates back to his decision at the beginning of his presidency to cut taxes on the fortune.
Others attacked their attempts to get the French to work longer before they were eligible for a full pension, as well as their crackdown on anti-government “yellow vest” protests in 2018-2019 and their government’s harsh rhetoric on immigration and Islam radical.
“Left-wing voters feel hurt and humiliated. They feel forced to vote for a candidate who does not respect them,” Remi Lefebvre, a professor of political science at the University of Lille, told AFP.
Faced with the rise of the national anti-immigrant and anti-EU rally (formerly the National Front) in the past two decades, the main French parties have regularly signed electoral pacts to bar the post of party winner.
Pressure to enter the “republican front” against the far right peaked in 2002, when Jean-Marie Le Pen defeated left wing Lionel Jospin by a spot in the final against center-right candidate Chirac.
Le Pen’s advance caused shock waves in France and led left-wing voters to lag behind Chirac, who won the second round with an overwhelming victory.
But in 2017 the “all against Le Pen” strategy had already begun to fall apart, with France’s radical leftist leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon, notably refusing to endorse investment banker Macron against Marine Le Pen after he himself was eliminated from the race for the presidency.
– ‘Recycling the program’ –
Former Hollande economics minister, Macron has given important positions to allies of former right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy, such as Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Prime Minister Jean Castex.
In recent weeks, his government has been accused of openly courting right-wing voters, with Darmanin criticizing Marine Le Pen in a debate about his “softness” with Islamists.
Higher Education Minister Frederique Vidal warned of the spread of “Islamism-leftism” in French universities, a term often used by the far right to demonize leftists who defend Muslims.
“Whether in social policy, civil liberties or political rhetoric, people have the impression, I think rightly so, that Macron is recycling the National Rally program,” France Unbowed lawmaker Eric Coquerel told AFP.
Coquerel voted for Macron in the second round of the 2017 election, but said “frankly, if it were done again, I think it would have the same reaction from those voters (who say they will not support him again)”.
Gilles Finchelstein, director of left-wing thinktank Jean Jaures, said left-wing voters are “fed up” with being invited to vote for the right or center-right.
But if the election produced another Macron-Le Pen confrontation, “some of the left-wing voters who say today that they will not vote are likely to vote for Macron,” he predicted.
cb / sjw / wai