MARSEILLE, France — On a stage erected on lush inexperienced lawns overlooking the sun-soaked Mediterranean port of Marseille, President Emmanuel Macron declared on Saturday to a crowd of supporters, “The politics that I will carry out in the next five years will be environmental, or will not be!”
It was an formidable promise for a president whose inexperienced insurance policies have been criticized at repeated local weather protests, condemned by courts for “inaction” and marked by failure to satisfy objectives. But above all, Mr. Macron’s vow was a direct enchantment to voters to his left, who maintain the important thing to a remaining victory within the second spherical of the presidential election — and for whom local weather has turn out to be a key subject.
Mr. Macron devoted about three-quarters of his hour-and-a-half speech to environmental points. He promised to nominate ministers liable for long-term environmental planning, to plant 140 million timber by 2030 and to quickly minimize dependence on oil and fuel by creating nuclear and renewable vitality.
“Inaction — not for me!” he instructed a cheering crowd of some 4,000 individuals who gathered within the Parc du Pharo, on the heights of Marseille, for what was presumably Mr. Macron’s final rally earlier than the April twenty fourth vote.
The occasion symbolized Mr. Macron’s technique for the runoff between the centrist incumbent and his far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen: wooing the left with progressive insurance policies and campaigning in working-class cities the place he’s attempting to shed his picture as an aloof president indifferent from on a regular basis realities. If giant numbers of left-wing voters keep dwelling for the second spherical of voting, or migrate to Ms. Le Pen’s camp, it may spell critical bother for Mr. Macron.
Stewart Chau, an analyst for the polling agency Viavoice, mentioned Mr. Macron’s primary aim was to “seek voters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon,” the far-left candidate who got here in third general within the first spherical of voting — however first in Marseille, with 31 p.c of the vote.
In September, the president unveiled a multibillion-euro plan to sort out crime and poverty in Marseille.
Promising a “complete renewal” if he’s re-elected, Mr. Macron additionally used his speech to assault Ms. Le Pen, accusing her of eager to curtail freedom of the press, problem gender equality and lead France out of the Europe Union. He is attempting to revive the “dam” that mainstream voters have lengthy shaped by voting for anybody over a Le Pen — both his present opponent or her father, Jean-Marie, leaders of the French far proper for the reason that Seventies.
Saturday’s rally capped an intense week of campaigning for Mr. Macron, touring the nation since Monday to make up for a lackluster preliminary marketing campaign. Visiting solely locations the place Ms. Le Pen or Mr. Mélenchon got here out on prime within the first spherical, he’s risking partaking with indignant residents, in an try to indicate that he, too, can really feel their ache.
By distinction, Ms. Le Pen, who has lengthy striven to melt her public picture, has been extra risk-averse, limiting her marketing campaign journeys this week. Instead, she has tried to cement her credibility with two information conferences on her institutional overhaul proposals and her overseas coverage agenda.
But these occasions partly backfired after her get together’s refusal to accredit some media retailers triggered a stir, and as she detailed contentious plans to hunt rapprochement with Russia and give up NATO’s built-in army command.
Ms. Le Pen has been extra uncovered to scrutiny since one other far-right candidate, Éric Zemmour, did not make the runoff. His incendiary feedback opposing immigration and Islam drew a lot of the eye away from Ms. Le Pen, who has lengthy been identified for comparable stances.
“The form confronts the substance,” mentioned Mr. Chau, the analyst, including that Ms. Le Pen’s sanitized picture now clashed with “the reality of her ideas, which are anything but appeased, anything but softened.”
At a rally on Thursday within the southern metropolis of Avignon, Ms. Le Pen talked about immigration solely 3 times, regardless of it being the cornerstone of her platform. She has proposed deporting foreigners after they’ve been unemployed for one yr, giving precedence to native-born French for social housing and advantages, and abolishing the fitting to citizenship by way of start in France.
Her supporters have been blunter. “She still wants to kick out the immigrants,” mentioned Aline Vincent, a French flag in her proper hand, who attended Ms. Le Pen’s rally together with about 4,000 others. “But she doesn’t say it the same way.”
In Marseille, Daniel Beddou, mentioned he “was very worried” in regards to the rise of the far proper. Holding a European flag in his left hand, he mentioned he was happy by Mr. Macron’s environmental plans. He mentioned they embodied the president’s “at the same time” method, referring to his behavior of borrowing insurance policies from each the left and proper.
As he appeals to the 7.7 million voters who backed Mr. Mélenchon within the first spherical and seem to carry the important thing to a remaining victory, Mr. Macron has toned down a few of his proposals, like a plan to boost the authorized retirement age to 65 from 62, which he now says might be softened.
On Saturday, he additionally insisted on long-term “environmental planning” — an idea that was a cornerstone of Mr. Mélenchon’s platform — promising to nominate a minister “directly responsible” for it, assisted by two ministers in control of the vitality and environmental transition.
“There’s a real willingness to speak to a working-class electorate, a left-wing electorate that we lacked in the first round,” mentioned Sacha Houlié, a lawmaker and spokesman for Mr. Macron’s marketing campaign.
What to Know About France’s Presidential Election
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Heading to a runoff. French residents voted on April 10 within the first spherical of the election, advancing President Emmanuel Macron and the far-right chief Marine Le Pen to the April 24 runoff. Here is a have a look at the race:
The far-right veteran. Ms. Le Pen, who has lengthy used fiery rhetoric to struggle her strategy to energy in France, is in search of to sanitize her picture. She completed third in 2012 and was defeated by Mr. Macron within the 2017 runoff, however will face Mr. Macron in one other runoff after a late surge lifted her to the second spherical.
What comes subsequent? At 8 p.m. in France on April 24, the French information media will work with pollsters to publish projected outcomes based mostly on preliminary vote counts, although projections won’t turn out to be clear till later if the race is shut. Read extra in regards to the runoff right here.
To what extent Mr. Macron’s last-minute leftward tilt will yield outcomes on the poll field stays to be seen.
Many voters stay disillusioned by Mr. Macron’s tack to the fitting lately. François Dosse, a French historian and thinker who was certainly one of Mr. Macron’s most enthusiastic supporters within the final election, mentioned his robust stance on immigration and in opposition to Islamic extremism amounted to “recycling the fears of the far right” and not directly lending credence to Ms. Le Pen’s discourse.
“It’s about playing Russian roulette,” Mr. Dosse mentioned of Mr. Macron’s technique of triangulating France’s electoral panorama. “And it’s a dangerous game in which one can lose — and lose democracy.”
Mr. Macron received simply 28 p.c of the vote final week, to 23 p.c for Ms. Le Pen and 22 p.c for Mr. Mélenchon, with a number of others trailing behind. Already, some voters are contemplating sitting out Round 2, disillusioned by the incumbent’s file.
“In 2017, he was a fresh face, he was young, he was ambitious — but in the end, he didn’t do anything,” mentioned Nadia Mebrek, a 48-year-old Mélenchon supporter, including she would seemingly abstain. She was standing within the Rue d’Aubagne, the place two buildings collapsed in 2018, killing eight individuals — a testomony to Marseille’s endemic housing and poverty disaster.
“Macron, he protects the rich more than the poor,” mentioned Ms. Mebrek, who as a private care assistant has at all times been paid solely the minimal wage.
Polls present that solely a 3rd of Mr. Mélenchon’s supporters would again Mr. Macron within the runoff to maintain Ms. Le Pen from energy, with the remaining break up between a vote for Ms. Le Pen and abstention.
But the primary week of the runoff marketing campaign has appeared to favor Mr. Macron. Voter surveys present that his lead within the second spherical has widened. The French president would get 56 p.c of the vote, in contrast with 44 for Ms. Le Pen — his largest lead since late March.
In Marseille, many Mélenchon supporters like Nate Gasser, 26, mentioned they’d maintain their noses and again Mr. Macron to defeat Ms. Le Pen. “It annoys me to do that, but we’ll vote for Macron,” he mentioned, insisting that it was not “a vote of adherence.”
“And after that,” he mentioned, “we’ll take to the streets to protest.”