President Emmanuel Macron is taking his hunt for more re-election support to France’s former industrial heartland in the north, a blue-collar stronghold of far-right rival Marine Le Pen, who he will face in an April 24 run-off vote.
Mr Macron, 44, is vying to become the first president in two decades to win a second term, but faces a tough challenge from Ms Le Pen, who has tapped into anger over the cost of living and a perception that Mr Macron is disconnected from everyday hardships.
A Le Pen win would send shock waves across Europe and beyond, and deliver a similar jolt to the establishment as Britain’s Brexit vote to leave the European Union or Donald Trump’s 2017 entry into the White House.
Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen came out on top in Sunday’s first-round vote, setting up a repeat of the 2017 run-off between the pro-European economic liberal and the euro-sceptic nationalist.
Left-wing voters will be crucial to determining the outcome of the election.
Hard-left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon, who came a close third on Sunday, told supporters not one single vote should go to the far right – but he stopped short of endorsing Mr Macron.
“Let’s make no mistake, nothing has been decided yet,” Mr Macron told his cheering supporters late on Sunday after partial results showed him qualifying for the run-off.
An interior ministry count showed that with 97 per cent of votes counted, Mr Macron had won 27.60 per cent of voters’ support. Ms Le Pen secured 23.41 per cent and Mr Melenchon 21.95 per cent.
Polls predict a close-fought second round with one survey projecting Mr Macron will win with just 51 per cent of the vote and 49 per cent for Ms Le Pen. The gap is so tight that victory either way is within the margin of error.
European neighbours are closely watching events in France, which together with Germany has driven Europe’s post-war integration.
The possibility of a Le Pen win was a worrying prospect for the EU and needed to be prevented by the French people, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said.
“It would not only be a break away from the core values of the EU, it would totally change its course,” Mr Asselborn said before a meeting with fellow European ministers in Luxembourg on Monday.
Mr Macron headed to the northern town of Denain, which once prided itself as the mining and steel capital of France but where in 2019 almost half the population lived in poverty.
Ms Le Pen on Sunday won 42 per cent of votes in the town.
As results filtered out, Mr Macron took aim at his far-right rival over the financing of her economic agenda, which would see the retirement age cut to 60 for those who start work before 20, income tax scrapped for the under-30s and a tax cut for energy.
Ms Le Pen has brought the image of her far-right party closer to the mainstream at a time when France has also lurched to the right following Islamist attacks. Even so, her softer, less combative manner belies a hardline anti-immigrant program.
But it has been her focus on the cost-of-living issues and her ability to connect with common folk that has proved particularly popular.
Macron supporters and some of his campaign insiders have said he must do more to win over the left.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said issues of the left such as climate change and the strengthening of the European Union would play a key role in the next two weeks of campaigning.
-Reuters
