French elections: Macron makes a last-minute plea to the left to counter Le Pen’s rise

PARIS (Reuters) – In the final days of the campaign trail before the first round of France’s election on Sunday, President Emmanuel Macron began a surprise shift to the left to rally voters who used to vote for Socialists and who feared staying at home. Voting day.

Macron, who has spent the past five years courting the center-right after defeating the Socialist Party and attracting a majority of his voters in 2017, is changing tack after opinion polls showed a record abstention could help the far-right candidate – Marine Le Pen. to win.

At a meeting on Thursday with readers of Le Parisien newspaper, Macron promised to expand measures to protect voters from rising electricity and oil prices, and said that when companies pay dividends, they should be forced to share some of the profits with employees.

On Friday, he also denied that he veered too far to the right during his first term, when he cut taxes on the rich, cut housing subsidies and ordered police to crack down on “yellow vest” protests.

“With what we’ve done for education and hospitals, I don’t have the feeling it’s a right-wing platform,” Macron told RTL radio, stressing that while he promised to raise the retirement age, he also plans to raise the retirement age. Minimum monthly pension to 1100 euros.

Polls show that Le Pen, Macron’s main rival, is closing in on the president just two days before the first round, spurred on by his strategy to focus on the cost of living at a time when record prices are at the pump for gas and food. Inflation became the main concern of voters.

Macron, for his part, has been losing steam since mid-March, under pressure from a statement introducing unpopular conservative measures, such as raising the retirement age to 65 and requiring some pension benefits.

“Left voters today think he’s too right,” Jean-Daniel Levy of pollster Harris told Reuters. “So reassuring the left is an important challenge for the president.”

At a rally last Saturday, Macron made a clear plea to left-wing voters, calling for a round of applause for teachers and nurses, promising jobs in hospitals and nursing homes, and saying social benefits would be conditioned on training, not work. community, as previously suggested.

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