“Emmanuel Macron did not crack”finds The weather, in Swiss. By finishing, Sunday, April 10, at the head of the first round, five points in front of the candidate of the National Rally Marine Le Pen, the outgoing president “succeeds half of his bet”.
His strategy of campaigning soon and late “seems to have paid off”decrypted The Telegraph, UK. This is a result “comfortable” for the Head of State, “Who regained the lead in the Elysée race.”
“But France ‘working’ who has resisted is not yet synonymous with victory” final, warns The weatherwho notes that “His moderate and centrist electorate is now assailed by anger.”
In total, far-right and far-left parties won some 51% of the vote, “obvious sign of the extent of the anger and frustration of the French”abound the New York Times.
Macron will have to “fight the fight of his life”
Emmanuel Macron will therefore have to “fighting the fight of his life” to win, believes the Financial Times.
The first second round projections, on April 24, against the candidate of the National Rally suggest a tighter score than in 2017, underlines The evening, which sums up : “Macron-Le Pen: the same poster, but no longer the same duel.”
The Belgian daily recalls that five years ago, barely qualified, Emmanuel Macron, went to the Rotonde, a brasserie in Montparnasse, to find his supporters, in “a premature party atmosphere which will also be much criticized”. He was then “sure and certain to win the match against the extreme right. And was not going to be wrong: two weeks later, he would snatch the victory at 66% against 34. But this time ? ”
The question arises all the more since the image of Marine Le Pen “has dramatically changed” during the campaign, analyzes the permanent envoy of the newspaper in Paris. “It is the double effect “purchasing power” and “cat power” on a candidate who spoke less about immigration than about the difficulties of the end of the month for modest French people and who posts photos of her felines on the networks. social after passing a breeding diploma during confinement.”
The televised game, “key moment” between the two rounds
“This election is the one where the Le Pen family is closest to having a chance to lead France, observe Politico. These forecasts mean that all eyes, both in Europe and in Washington, will be on the twists and turns of the campaign in the coming days, as allies seek to assess whether Paris will remain a reliable partner, [notamment] in the war against Putin’s forces in Ukraine.”
NATO and the European Union, in particular, will observe “nervously” what will happen in France, while Marine Le Pen has expressed her desire to withdraw the European Union’s only nuclear power from the integrated command structure of the Atlantic alliance, and that she “could also inflict potentially fatal damage to the functioning of the EU”.
In Canada, The Press anticipate that a “key moment” of the two weeks of the new campaign which begins will be on April 20, during the traditional televised debate between the two rounds.