Presidential battle switches to fishing

FRENCH presidential candidates Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron have clashed over the future of the fishing industry.

The exchange marked a return to traditional campaigning after the extraordinary “battle of Whirlpool”, when both candidates sought to harness France’s bluecollar vote at a threatened home appliances factory.

The anti-EU far-right populist Ms Le Pen was up before dawn to cruise aboard a fishing trawler on the Mediterranean.

The sea trip was her latest television-friendly effort to portray herself as the candidate of France’s workers against the centrist Mr Macron, whom she paints as the candidate of the financial, political and pro-EU elite.

Mr Macron had a scheduled television appearance last night.

Ms Le Pen said after her voyage on a trawler: “My grandfather was a fisherman, so I am in my element.”

She said France will take back control of its maritime policies if she is elected in the secondround vote on May 7.

The far-right candidate again tore into Mr Macron’s more economically liberal policy plans. He fired back on Twitter, saying Ms Le Pen’s proposals to take France out of the EU would sink the fishing industry. “Have a nice trip. Europe’s exit she proposes, it’s the end of French fishing.” he said.

With her sea trip, Ms Le Pen continued to focus on the blue-collar theme she sought to take ownership of on Wednesday at a threatened factory.