Le Pen vowing to battle on
Embattled presidential candidate Marine Le Pen yesterday vowed to spare France five more years of “arrogance without limit” at the hands of Emmanuel Macron as she insisted she could nail a major upset on Monday.
The National Rally candidate and her supporters dismissed snap polls that pronounced Macron the clear winner of a crunch three-hour TV debate on Thursday. Some 59 per cent saw him as the victor, one found.
“Like a boa constrictor, Macron seemed to gradually tighten his grip around his opponent until she suffocated,” concluded Le Monde.
Le Pen was viewed as closer to the people while Macron came across as more competent and presidential but arrogant.
Seeking to capitalise on that weak
spot at what may prove her last ever presidential campaign speech in Arras in her northern electoral heartland, Le Pen told a fervent crowd of thousands that the debate had “confirmed what the French people sensed was his true nature”.
Aping the way the incumbent mansplained in his chair while rolling his eyes during her responses, she said: “We saw an Emmanuel Macron who was nonchalant, condescending and with an arrogance without limit. A President shouldn’t behave like that.”
She went on in an increasingly hoarse voice: “Are we really surprised? No. His attitude last night, his disdain, is the same way he treated the French for the past five years.” Her programme, she said, was “an ode to France”.
This vote was a simple question: “Macron or France?”
The fierce final attack came after polls suggested the debate had not helped her cause, and that Macron had extended his lead. One poll yesterday had him on 55.5 per cent.
In a sign of growing confidence, Macron let it be known he has booked out the Champs de Mars area in front of the Eiffel Tower for a potential acceptance speech on Monday.
On a tour of poor, immigrant suburbs on the northern outskirts of Paris, the 44-year-old centrist denied that he had browbeaten his rival.
In Arras, Le Pen urged the French not to heed the “fear merchants” of a “system” desperate to “save Private Macron” and that the game was far from over. To chants of “We will win”, Le Pen said the “silent majority” could still swing the result.Many of her supporters remained convinced she could still pull it off.
Frdric Sulpizi, 60, a tramway technician, said: “What I hear on the ground is very different to what we see in the polls. Many really believe she can do it. They didn’t think it would be this close and don’t forget there is a big reserve of votes.
“Five years ago, I didn’t believe she could win for a minute. But this time it could go either way.”
Much hangs on whether disappointed Leftists decide to cast a blank ballot or vote Macron in the final hour. Some 40 per cent say they will either stay at home or cast a blank vote.
Florent, 41, a Leftist English teacher, said: “I think she could well yet win. They got it wrong with Trump, with Bolsanaro. The far-Right is now at the gates of power.”