Defections boost presidential hopes for France’s Macron

Two members of government desert Socialist Party contender

French presidential election front-runner Emmanuel Macron saw his lead in the polls bolstered by news yesterday that two members of the government were deserting the official Socialist Party contender to back the 39-year-old centrist.

The defections included one major catch — Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, a Socialist Party grandee who has been both a close ally and friend of outgoing President Francois Hollande for nearly 40 years.

Macron, who has never held elected office, has gatecrashed the leadership contest with a pledge to transcend the longestablished divide of Left-versus-Right politics with an programme for cross-partisan government.

His position was confirmed by a Harris Interactive poll of more than 6,000 voters which showed Macron coming first in a first round of voting on April 23 and then trouncing far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the two-way runoff on May 7.

Second defection

The second defection was that of Thierry Braillard, a junior sports minister.

Earlier this week, biodiversity minister Barbara Pompili, another junior member of the Socialist leadership which has been in power since 2012, also switched allegiance to Macron rather than back the official Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon.

All this is bad news for Hamon who has been struggling in fourth place in the polls for weeks and fell to fifth spot in the Harris poll.

Only the two top candidates in the April 23 opening round, which all opinion polls say will be Macron and Le Pen, can go through to the May 7 runoff.

Hollande, the first president not to seek re-election since the introduction of universal suffrage in 1962, had appealed to ministers to refrain at least until the end of this week from taking pre-election positions.

Le Drian announced his move to Ouest-France, a regional newspaper. The support of a respected voice in security matters and foreign affairs is particularly welcome news for the youthful former economy minister, who has been criticised by opponents for lacking experience in these areas.