Election Committee Set Up in New Caledonia to Support Re-election of French President Macron
Acommittee has been set up in New Caledonia to support the re-election of French president Emmanuel Macron although he is yet to announce whether he will again seek office next April.
The committee is headed by the mayor of Noumea Sonia Lagarde, who said Mr Macron’s support for New Caledonia has been flawless.
More than 96 per cent voted against independence in last Sunday’s vote, which was boycotted by the pro-independence camp because of the impact of the pandemic.
She said if New Caledonians voted in three referendums to stay with France, it’s due to Mr Macron’s commitment.
In 2017, in the decisive second round of the last presidential election, Mr Macron secured 53 percent of New Caledonia’s votes against 47 percent of Marine Le Pen of the National Rally.
However, in the mainly anti-independence Southern Province, only 46 percent voted for Mr Macron.
In the first round, he came a distant third behind Francois Fillon and Ms Le Pen. with just 13 percent support.
Defends his record without formally declaring run for presidency
According to FRANCE24, after a rare two-hour press conference last week to outline his European ambitions, the 43-year-old head of state sat down with journalists from the TF1 channel as campaigning ahead of next April’s vote heats up.
“If your question is ‘are you looking ahead?’,’do you have ambitions for our country, for French people beyond next April?’. Clearly,” the centrist replied when asked if he would be running for another five-year term.
“I never thought that we could do everything in five years.”
But he argued he needed to stay focused on governing before giving a “firm and sincere response” about his candidacy to the country.
As well as his recent media work, the country’s youngest-ever president when elected in 2017 has also been touring smalltown and rural France in recent weeks in what has resembled grassroots campaigning.
““I’ll keep going until the final quarter of an hour,” he said. RNZ Pacific / FRANCE24