Since the second round duel between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen was announced, the positions and voting instructions of the candidates and political tenors have been falling apart, reactivating on the left and in part of the right calls for “republican front”, to block the far right.
On Sunday, it was first the candidates themselves who personally positioned themselves and sometimes formulated voting instructions for their supporters. Of the ten disappointed suitors, six of them, mostly on the left, called, a minimanot to “give a voice” to Marine Le Pen highlighting the dangers that her presidential election could pose.
Six candidates have positioned themselves against the far right
It was first of all Anne Hidalgo, candidate for the PS, who, a few minutes after 8 p.m., called on socialist voters to “vote against the extreme right of Marine Le Pen in [se] serving as the ballot Emmanuel Macron”. Fabien Roussel, the communist candidate also called his supporters “to beat the far right”, “using the only ballot that will be available”that of Mr. Macron. “I call to block the far right by depositing an Emmanuel Macron ballot in the ballot box”, engaged the environmental candidate Yannick Jadot.
Arriving third in the ballot, the “rebellious” Jean-Luc Mélenchon repeated: “We must not give a single voice to Mr.me Le Pen ». The approximately 300,000 citizens who sponsored his candidacy will be consulted in order to establish LFI’s voting instructions (Macron vote, abstention, blank vote). The NPA candidate, Philippe Poutou, for his part, asked his supporters to “don’t give a voice” to the RN candidate. As for the other Trotskyist in the running, Nathalie Arthaud, she refused to comment on the duel to come.
On the right, Valérie Pécresse, for her part, affirmed that she would vote in her name for Emmanuel Macron “to prevent the rise to power of Marine Le Pen and the resulting chaos”but without giving instructions to LR activists, before the political office is held on Monday.
For his part, Jean Lassalle will vote blank but refuses to give any voting instructions.
Only the far-right suitors Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, already rallied to Mme Le Pen, in the second round in 2017, and Eric Zemmour, who came fourth in the first round, called for support for the National Rally candidate.
A compromise position at LR, for lack of divisions
Within the Republican party, two lines clash: one embodied by Mme Pécresse, who therefore assumes to call for a vote for Mr. Macron despite the fact that he is a political opponent to block the road to Mr.me The Pen and, on the other hand, a straighter line, carried in particular by Eric Ciotti, who refuses to ” to block “ by voting for Mr. Macron.
At the end of the political bureau, the party adopted a compromise position – 116 votes out of 130 – to call on LR voters to grant “no vote” to Marine Le Pen, stressing that the “ political and economic project [de Marine Le Pen] would lead us to chaos,” but without calling to vote for Mr. Macron directly.
Several tenors of the party have, all the same, each affirmed that they would do it, like the president of the party, Christian Jacob, the president of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand, the former European commissioner Michel Barnier and the former Sarkozy minister and mayor of 7e district, Rachida Dati, to beat the far right.
The far right tries to use the “anti-Macron” vote to counter the “anti-Le Pen” vote
On the far right, the supporters of Mme Le Pen advance their arguments, in order to oppose the “sanitary cordon” which would exist with the right – and would benefit Emmanuel Macron – by attacking the notion of “Republican dam”.
The RN candidate herself said on Monday that she considered that “the Republican front is a way of getting saved when you don’t deserve it”, on the sidelines of a trip to Yonne, calling on voters to read his program and playing on his “demonized” image.
Sunday evening, during her speech Marine Le Pen had invited “all those who did not vote” for Mr. Macron at the ” join “seeking in particular to convince left-wing voters who voted for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, by betting on the social aspect of his program to better break the dike.
For the councilor of Béziers Robert Ménard, support of the candidate of the RN, “what kills politics is this permanent posture”, he denounced, Monday, at the microphone of BFM-TV. He called the Republican front a“absurdity”arguing to discredit him: “When I hear what has been said since yesterday, from Mr. Poutou to Mr.me Pécresse, and that, suddenly, they all agree to stand up against the extreme right, who can think that all this is serious? »
“She has come far enough that it is no longer possible to get rid of her out of hand, saying ‘she is far right'”, he continued to argue, pointing in particular to the change of position of his candidate on an exit from the European Union.
An argument similar to that of the acting president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, affirming Monday morning at the microphone of France Inter, that the blocking vote did not threaten, or more, Marine Le Pen: “Emmanuel Macron has greatly divided the French. He created a lot of tension, a lot of disorder in the country and a large part of the crises that we faced for five years, it was he who caused them. »
Emmanuel Macron tries to seize the dam vote
Conversely, the supporters of Emmanuel Macron and the candidate president himself are calling for the establishment of this republican roadblock, which has been eroding since 2002. During his qualifying speech on Sunday evening, the head of the Outgoing state has thus « tend[u] the hand to all those who want to work for France » and addressed its thanks to those who want to do “barrage against the far right”.
“I think that the subject which the French will be confronted with in the days to come is a subject of project against project”argued on Monday on BFM-TV the boss of La République en marche (LRM) deputies, Christophe Castaner, highlighting the danger posed by the accession to power of Mme The pen. The former socialist added: “I know, coming from the left, that the notion of a republican front is something that still exists”.
Traveling Monday in the North, Mr. Macron showed his desire to expand the political rally in a “great movement of unity and action” around him, starting from the opposite observation: “As there is no longer a Republican front, I cannot act as if it existed”.
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