Macron joins race for French presidency as independent
PARIS — Emmanuel Macron launched his bid for the French presidency on Wednesday, a move likely to take votes from mainstream candidates in a tight race that promises a strong turnout for far-right leader Marine Le Pen and humiliation for the left.
The former investment banker, who until August was Socialist President Francois Hollande’s economy minister, will stand as an independent in next year’s presidential election.
Although among France’s most popular politicians, the 38-yearold does not hold elected office and has no party apparatus behind him, so his campaign may struggle. He also has yet to set out his policies in any detail.
However, he is widely seen as likely to take votes from conservative Alain Juppe, the current favourite to win the presidency, and who is fighting a tightening race for the centre-right nomination in a presidential primary election starting on Sunday.
At his launch in an apprenticeship centre northeast of Paris, Macron said he wanted to move France away from “clan-based politics”, adding: “I’ve witnessed the shallowness of our political system from the inside.”
He said the best way for France to deal with globalisation was closer ties with the rest of Europe, in contrast to the inward-looking policies of some other contenders.
Juppe has fought his campaign so far on a similarly pro-European and centrist platform, positioning himself to the left of his main rival, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Ex-president Sarkozy in turn has sought to appeal to populist voters with sharp criticism of European Union policy and of Hollande’s track record on security and immigration that resonate in France after a series of militant Islamist attacks in France and with Europe in the grip of an immigration crisis.
Polls until this week showed 71-year-old former prime minister Juppe winning the primaries of the Les Republicains party and its centre-right allies, beating off Sarkozy’s challenge.
Juppe was then expected to be propelled in the election itself by voters of the mainstream right, centre and left, all determined to
I want to move France away from clan-based politics. I’ve witnessed the shallowness of our political system from the inside
Emannuel Macron, former French minister
keep the popular anti-EU, antiimmigration National Front leader Le Pen from power. They still mostly show that scenario, but on top of the Macron move, fresh poll readings in recent days ahead of a last television debate on Thursday point to a “third man”, Francois Fillon, potentially spoiling the Sarkozy-Juppe scenario.
In the background too is a feeling that more surprises might be on their way.
Donald Trump’s unexpected victory over Hillary Clinton for the US presidency raised the prospect that surveys might still be failing to capture the full scale of the populist vote being courted by Sarkozy and Le Pen, despite assurances from French pollsters that they take full account of the potential for “hidden” far-right votes.
Le Pen was in a confident mood on Wednesday.
“Macron is the banks’ candidate,” she said at the launch of her campaign headquarters. —