French far-left may help far-right
Candidate Le Pen hopes socialist voters sit out presidential runoff
Special for USA TODAY PARIS Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen hopes to stage a Donald-Trump-like upset in Sunday’s runoff, but her best chance depends on far-left voters boycotting the presidential election.
That could happen because polls show up to a quarter of French voters don’t like either of the two candidates and could abstain from voting, which might help her close a sizeable lead her opponent holds in the latest polls.
Many are repelled by Le Pen’s fiery rhetoric against immigrants, particularly Muslims, and French membership in the European Union. Others are turned off by front-runner Emmanuel Macron’s investment banking background and what they see as his support for the status quo.
In a bitter debate Wednesday night, Le Pen assailed Macron as a defender of “savage globalization.” Macron called Le Pen an extremist who poses a “threat to our institutions.”
Post-debate polls showed Macron the clear winner, as he headed into the campaign’s final stretch with a double-digit lead.
“Many voters feel a sincere repulsion for the National Front and for Marine Le Pen. They don’t want her for president,” said Serge Galam, who studies elections at the French National Center for Scientific Research. “But to show this they have to cast their ballot for Macron. Many voters feel an aversion to Macron. A good number of them will look for any excuse to forget to cast their ballot.”
Macron, running as an independent centrist who has never held elective office, leads Le Pen 59% to 41% in the latest Cevipof/ IPSOS/France 3 poll. But 24% are likely to sit out the election, possibly eroding Macron’s lead. A poll by Boston-based Suffolk University Political Research Center showed Macron leading, 47% to 31%, with 15% saying they intended to leave their ballots blank and 7% undecided.
Leaders of the two mainstream parties that have ruled France since the end of World War II, were defeated in the first round of voting April 23 and endorsed Macron. But far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, likened to Sen. Bernie Sanders in the United States, has refused to endorse the front-runner.
Former president Barack Obama, who is wildly popular in France, has formally endorsed French presidential hopeful Emmanuel Macron, an independent centrist he calls the candidate of “hope.”
The unusual endorsement by a former U.S. president in a foreign election amounts to something of a proxy fight with President Trump, who has spoken positively of right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen of the National Front party.
Obama’s remarks appear in a taped message posted on Macron’s “En Marche!” website.
“I have admired the campaign that Emmanuel Macron has run,” Obama said. “He has stood up for liberal values. He put forward a vision for the important role that France plays in Europe and around the world, and he is committed to a better future for the French people.”
In a reference to his own campaign, Obama said Macron “appeals to people’s hopes and not their fears.”
Trump told the Associated Press although he was not offering an endorsement, he thinks Le Pen is “strongest on borders, and she’s the strongest on what’s been going on in France.”
Le Pen and Macron face off Sunday in the final round of voting for president. The latest polls show Macron leading Le Pen by about 20 points.
Mélenchon came in a surprising fourth place with 19.6% of the vote in the first round, and twothirds of his supporters would probably not vote or leave their ballots blank Sunday, according to a recent online survey.
Macron, 39, attacked the mainstream parties during the campaign, but now depends on their supporters to become the youngest president in French history. “They will have to swallow a bitter pill on voting day,” Galam said.
Macron’s supporters argue that his image as a political maverick appeals to voters seeking change after suffering through years of economic stagnation and a series of terror attacks, problems that plagued unpopular incumbent François Hollande, who decided against seeking a second term.
Macron “is reshuffling the political cards of the country,” said student Kevin Le Nouail, 24. “He is offering a true overhaul of political life.”
Le Nouail acknowledged that a large number of abstentions Sunday “could create an upset” for Le Pen, 48, who would be the first woman to lead France.
Le Pen supporters are expected to turn out en masse, and she is climbing in the polls — a 5point bump since Monday. Le Pen is very popular in rural areas and among French who resent an influx of Muslim immigrants.
Her gain in the polls comes as Le Pen’s National Front plays up Macron’s lack of experience. Macron served as economy minister under Hollande.
“People don’t really know what Macron’s platform is,” said National Front backer Aymeric Merlaud, 25, a student. “They elected a face on a glazed paper, a poster boy” in the first round, Merlaud said of the telegenic candidate. “I’m not certain that it’s enough to make a good president.”
Le Pen has been portrayed by her opponents as an extremist whose father and National Front founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, was a Nazi sympathizer.
Nathalie Dulac, 55, supported Mélenchon in the first round but doesn’t like Macron. “Personally I will not vote in the second round,” she said.