Presidential 2022: rallies, program… Emmanuel Macron forced into the splits for the second round – Le Monde

Emmanuel Macron’s meeting in Strasbourg, April 12, 2022. CYRIL BITTON / DIVERGENCE FOR “THE WORLD” The pinkish hue of Strasbourg Cathedral faded overnight. Spotlights illuminate the Place du Château at its feet. Emmanuel Macron thrones on a platform, on this Tuesday, March 12, surrounded by a few thousand people, who wave French, European and Ukrainian flags. “Long live Europe! “, chant the supporters of the head of state. The latter came to send a warning, twelve days before the second round of the presidential election, which will see him face the candidate of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, on April 24, in a duel with an uncertain result. “This election is also a referendum on Europe. The far-right candidate is proposing a nationalist project, which is not patriotism,” he warns, echoing the words spoken by François Mitterrand in the European Parliament in 1995: “Nationalism is war. . The words reverberate in the audience as Russian troops pound Ukraine. So, believes Emmanuel Macron, “we can have disagreements, sometimes differences, but the European project which is ours, today, we must defend it”. Applause, Marseillaise, Ode to Joy. Read also: Macron believes that “this election is also a referendum on Europe”, Le Pen presents his proposals on democracy: the political news of April 12 A few minutes earlier, a handful of young people – “militants of extreme left”, he will say – interrupting his speech with cries of “Macron, give back the ISF! » ; others challenged him on climate change, or claimed the name of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. A last was evacuated by the security service after taking out a sign “Angry Beavers”. Reference to the ironic expression used by the leader of La France insoumise (LFI) to qualify left-wing voters, who have been called upon to block the far right in a ritual way for twenty years. Hard task than that of Emmanuel Macron. For five years, the herald of the “overcoming” of the right-left divide managed to play with the contradictions inherent in “at the same time”, to the point of surviving a five-year period of crises and devitalizing the moderates on both shores. He must now achieve in less than two weeks the synthesis which will allow him to attract the voters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon without alienating his own, nor seeming to dodge the outstretched hand of the right. That of Nicolas Sarkozy, in particular, whom he received at the Elysée in the days preceding the first round. Europe, therefore. Eternal cement of macronism. But still ? Meeting of Emmanuel Macron in Strasbourg, April 12, 2022. CYRIL BITTON / DIVERGENCE FOR “THE WORLD” Support for Nicolas Sarkozy Monday evening, former Socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve calls for a vote in favor of Emmanuel Macron. He immediately invites him to “find the words, the behavior, but also the actions to convince the French, in particular all those who are enamored of social justice and democratic progress”. You have 65.84% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.