Macron booed by strikers
PR trap set by his far-right rival Marine Le Pen pays off
STRIKING workers jeered France’s front-running presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron when he showed up at a northern French factory after being publicly trumped by far-right rival Marine Le Pen.
Setting a public relations trap for centrist Macron in a region that staunchly supports her National Front, Le Pen unexpectedly showed up at the tumble-drier Whirlpool factory in Amiens – his hometown – while he was meeting union representatives elsewhere.
Le Pen whipped up passions among workers striking against plans to close the US factory in favour of increased production in Poland, saying they were victims of globalisation. She accused Macron of showing “contempt” for them by not coming to see them.
She portrayed him as cuddling up to bosses rather than workers.
“Macron is with the oligarchs, with the Medef (the employers’ association)… I am with the French workers,” Le Pen said.
When he finally made it there later, Macron was met by angry heckling and jostling from crowds of workers, a rare scene for a French presidential candidate, broadcast live on news channels and drew much comment on social media.
Some National Front activists mingled in the crowd. Tyres were set ablaze in protest.
Macron stood his ground for more than an hour putting his case to the workers and things gradually calmed.
Macron, 39, widely expected to beat Le Pen in the May 7 vote, had over the past days been accused by potential allies and some media of acting as if victory was in the bag since he came first in an initial round of voting on April 23.
Le Pen, arriving at Whirlpool’s strike site, said: “When I heard that Emmanuel Macron was coming here and did not plan to meet the workers, did not plan to come to the picket line but would shelter himself in the chamber of commerce… I considered it was such a sign of contempt for the Whirlpool workers that I decided to… come here and see you.” Macron hit back, accusing Le Pen of making empty, populist promises.
“Madame Le Pen is using the situation for political ends, stirring up crowds,” he said after television footage showed him talking with workers’ union delegates at the chamber of commerce while Le Pen posed for selfies on the site of the strike itself.
“If she’s elected, this company will close. When Madame Le Pen says we’ll exit globalisation, she’s lying to you,” he told the workers.
“If we shut down borders, thousands of jobs will be lost.”