Riding High in France’s Polls, Emmanuel Macron Argues for Second Term

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PARIS — Talking to a rustic nonetheless reeling from a pandemic and made anxious by conflict in Europe, President Emmanuel Macron of France made his case for a second time period on Thursday by portraying himself as greatest geared up to guard the nation.

In a 90-minute speech earlier than a whole bunch of journalists, Mr. Macron started by pledging to bolster France’s navy and protection earlier than enumerating a protracted and different checklist of different sources and values he promised to guard: France’s agriculture, its tradition, its youngsters towards bullying.

Mr. Macron adopted a markedly completely different tone from the one which characterised his upstart candidacy 5 years in the past. Again then, he embodied a disruptive drive that was able to reform a change-resistant France, whether or not it appreciated it or not, and switch it right into a start-up nation.

Now, Mr. Macron stated that his platform was “drawing upon the crises” that had left a mark on his presidency to convey a divided nation again collectively and meet its challenges.

“This can be a platform that goals to guard our fellow residents, our nation, to emancipate every one by giving again possibilities, transmitting our values, our tradition, our nation,” Mr. Macron stated on the information convention, within the northern Parisian suburb of Aubervilliers, including that France would “actually face crises and huge disruptions as soon as once more.”

In a marketing campaign that has been overshadowed by the Covid-19 pandemic after which the conflict in Ukraine, the information convention additionally served as a rebuttal to rising criticism, amongst his rivals and within the information media, that Mr. Macron has been making an attempt to coast to victory with out participating in any debate or laying out an agenda.

With polls displaying him simply successful one of many two spots within the second and last spherical of voting, Mr. Macron has refused to have interaction in any debate together with his opponents earlier than the primary spherical on April 10.

On Monday, he participated in a program involving eight of the 12 official candidates on the TF1 tv channel, however his marketing campaign staff demanded such strict measures that any risk of debate was eradicated: TF1 journalists interviewed every candidate individually, conspicuously guaranteeing that they didn’t handle and even run into one another on the set.

Then, on Wednesday, the BFMTV information channel stated it could cancel its personal debate due to the absences of Mr. Macron and Marine Le Pen, the far-right chief who’s working second within the polls behind the president. His staff stated he had a scheduling battle, and Ms. Le Pen withdrew in response.

Wrapping himself within the grandeur of the French presidency, Mr. Macron has sought to stay above his rivals and the fray — a method that has yielded even higher dividends because the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine.

Russia’s invasion has given Mr. Macron a powerful increase within the polls, providing him a lofty perch to behave as a wartime chief and Europe’s diplomat-in-chief whereas his rivals, a number of of whom had been sympathetic to the Russian president earlier than the battle, squabble to face off towards him.

The newest polls place Mr. Macron within the lead with roughly 30 p.c of voting intentions within the first spherical of voting — far forward of Ms. Le Pen, who final confronted him within the second spherical of voting in 2017 and is now polling at about 18 p.c.

However Mr. Macron’s refusal to debate has was a problem of its personal, particularly after the lackluster response to his first — and, thus far, solely — assembly with the general public after formally declaring his candidacy. The information media revealed that questions posed to the president in the course of the assembly with voters in a suburb of Paris this month has been fastidiously screened.

Rivals have warned that Mr. Macron wouldn’t get pleasure from a powerful mandate if he had been to be re-elected with out fulling participating within the race.

Gérard Larcher, the president of the Senate and a member of the center-right opposition social gathering, Les Républicains, stated Mr. Macron “desires to be re-elected with out ever having actually been a candidate, and not using a marketing campaign, with out debating, with the confrontation of concepts.’’

“If there’s no marketing campaign, the winner’s legitimacy will likely be questioned,’’ Mr. Larcher advised Le Figaro.

Mr. Macron has countered that none of his predecessors had taken half in a debate earlier than the primary spherical of voting.

“Debating with journalists doesn’t appear any extra disgraceful or any much less illuminating than debating with different candidates,” he stated on the information convention Thursday.

Over 4 hours, Mr. Macron promised to offer colleges and hospitals extra native flexibility, simplify and centralize welfare profit funds, and lift the retirement age to 65, after his plans to overtake France’s pension system brought about huge strikes and had been dropped in the course of the pandemic.

Mr. Macron additionally pledged to purpose for full employment by 2027 and vowed to raised steadiness some welfare advantages with working obligations.

He stated his platform, together with tax breaks, would value roughly 50 billion euros per 12 months, or about $55.6 billion, paid for with financial savings made by means of pension and unemployment reforms, cuts to purple tape, and extra development.

However thus far, with none actual confrontation or back-and-forth between Mr. Macron and the opposite candidates on their platforms or their imaginative and prescient for France, the presidential marketing campaign has been formed principally by exterior forces.

A kind of has been rising vitality costs, which began rising because the world financial system emerged from Covid-19 shutdowns however have continued to surge since Russia invaded Ukraine.

The French authorities has launched a package deal of subsidies and tax breaks to assist firms and households foot mounting gasoline and oil payments, as Mr. Macron seeks to keep away from a repeat of the Yellow Vest motion that roiled France in 2018 and 2019, sparked by a rise in gasoline taxes and fueled by a wider sense of alienation felt by these dwelling outdoors Paris.

An equally urgent and far more surprising concern burst into the marketing campaign this month when Corsica, a mountainous French island within the Mediterranean with a deeply rooted nationalist motion, flared with violent riots which have injured scores of cops.

The protests had been triggered by the brutal jail home assault in mainland France earlier this month of Yvan Colonna, a Corsican man who was convicted of the 1998 homicide of a government-appointed prefect on the island.

Many in Corsica really feel that Mr. Colonna, who’s now in a coma, has been unfairly handled by the French state, which — till the assault — had refused take steps to switch him onto the island.

Scrambling to cease the rioting, Mr. Macron shortly dispatched the inside minister to the island to calm tensions.

However feedback suggesting that the federal government was keen to debate Corsican “autonomy” — a tough matter in extremely centralized France — gave Mr. Macron’s opponents much-needed ammunition.

“One has to convey order again to Corsica earlier than beginning negotiations,” Valérie Pécresse, the candidate for Les Républicains, advised France Inter radio on Wednesday as she accused Mr. Macron of shortly caving in to the violence to safeguard his marketing campaign.

Ms. Le Pen expressed even stronger opposition, saying on Twitter that Mr. Macron’s “cynical cronyism” would “shatter the integrity of French territory.”

“Corsica should stay French,” she stated.

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