(Original title: Countdown to the French election: Macron’s advantage shrinks and warns voters not to repeat the mistakes of “Brexit”)
Financial Associated Press (Shanghai, edited by Shi Zhengcheng),On Saturday night local time, French President Emmanuel Macron held his only campaign rally before the election amid a tsunami of tens of thousands of supporters at the La Defense Arena in Paris. Unlike the devastating victory five years ago, Macron yesterday emphatically warned voters not to repeat the “Brexit”-style mistakes.
According to the campaign schedule, the first round of voting in the French general election will be held on April 10. If no candidate obtains more than half of the votes, the two with the most votes will have a separate PK in the second round of voting on April 24. For Macron, who is seeking re-election, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen of the National Front will pose a substantial threat this year.
Macron’s advantage shrinks significantly
In his speech on Saturday, Macron admonished voters: “Look at what happened with Brexit and many other elections, many things that seemed unlikely actually happened. The danger of extremism has reached new heights, Hate and alternative facts (meaning lies) have become the norm over the past few months and years, and we’ve grown accustomed to seeing racist authors appearing on TV shows.”
The “extremism” in Macron’s mouth is exactly the old rival Le Pen. Although Macron defeated Le Pen with 66.10% of the votes in the second round of voting in the 2017 general election, the gap between the two has narrowed to single digits.
According to local media reports, two polls released on Saturday showed that Macron and Le Pen will easily enter the second round, while Macron was only ahead in the positive dialogue on April 24 by 53% to 47%. The tight voting situation has also forced Macron’s aides to arrange more canvassing activities for him.
Similar to previous German elections, Macron was also affected by scandals ahead of this year’s elections. The French Senate released an investigation report before the election, showing that Macron signed multi-billion-euro contracts with a number of consulting firms during his tenure. Among them, the US consulting firm McKinsey’s tax problems also had a negative impact on Macron’s election.
Economic issues go head-to-head
Regarding Macron’s shrinking electoral advantage, aides in the presidential palace also believe that some of his conservative but realistic economic strategy propositions have had an impact on the election campaign, such as raising the pension age to 65.
In his speech on Saturday, Macron also continued his pledge to increase jobs in hospitals and nursing homes, but stressed that the cost of these social reforms would not be paid for by raising taxes or issuing more national debt.
Macron made it clear that “not to hide the fact that the French need to work longer, and also not to believe what they (Le Pen) say can bring the retirement age up to 60 or 62 and the economy is still functioning, which is Unrealistic”.
Under Le Pen’s campaign outline, she rejects any extension of the retirement age and says pensions will be adjusted for inflation, while also proposing waiving income tax for workers under 30 and reducing the value-added tax on energy products from 20 percent to 5.5 %.
Of course, Le Pen also faces strong negative factors. She herself has publicly expressed her admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin. As the Russian-Ukrainian conflict unfolded and the political winds intensified, Le Pen quickly jumped to blame Putin and turned the issue to the impact of the conflict on the purchasing power of French consumers, promising to raise taxes on well-earned energy companies if elected .