Macron vs Le Pen (part two): how the battle for the French presidency has changed compared to 2017
Five years later, history repeats itself, but under very different circumstances.
Emmanuel Macron intends to become the first president to be re-elected by the French in 15 years, while her old rival, Marine Le Pen, has a real shot at reaching the Elysée Palace, much higher than that of five years ago, according to the polls.
This Sunday, the current president of the French Republic and the far-right candidate face each other again after being the two most voted candidates in the first electoral round held on of April.
With 27,85% of the votes, Macron got more than Le Pen, who added 18,15%.
The ultra-leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon came in solid third place with 20,95%, and your votes could define who will be the next president of the second largest economy in the European Union and one of its main engines.
But the uncertainty weighs on the approximately 48 millions of registered voters on the elected lists French rales.
When Macron and Le Pen met for the first time in 2015, the candidate of the newly founded La República en Marcha party had at least two advantages that she no longer has.
She was a new face in a country where the traditional political class was -and continues to be- in decline.
He also promised to modernize the country, with a program more predictable than the radical agenda of his far-right rival.
But his image has worn off.
The popular classes in France accuse him of being “the president of the rich”, while Le Pen has made an effort to moderate his image and that of his party, to which even in 2018 changed its old name from the National Front to one that calls for inclusion: National Association.
Whatever happens, the winner of this new one with store will move to the Elysée presidential palace on 13 in May and will be at the helm of the world’s seventh largest economy for five years.
Macron is still the favorite in the opinion polls, but this time the race is much closer than in 2017, when the current president won by 32 percentage points.
By why this time it will not be so easy for Macron to beat Marine Le Pen
A survey conducted by Ifop-Fiducial locate the screening for this Sunday at 46 % for Macron and 45% for Le Pen, while Ipsos-Sopra Steria gives the current president a broader advantage, of 53% against 46 %.
These are the two rivals in an election whose results will transcend Europe and the world.
Emmanuel Macron against his image from “president of the rich”
Emmanuel Macron in Marseille on 10 April 2022.
On May 7, 2017, Emmanuel Macron made history by dethroning Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte for a few months and becoming, with 35 years and a half, in the youngest president of the history of France.
This Sunday he will try to make history again, but in another category.
Now with 44 years, his goal is to follow in the footsteps of Jacques Chirac in 2002, when he also faced Le Pen, Marine’s father, and managed to convince the stubborn French people to re-elect him.
After him, former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande also sought re-election, without success.
Macron knows that it is difficult for him and that he needs at least part of the ultra-left voters erdist Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
His call, after knowing the results of the first round, was to stop a the extreme right.
“I invite everyone, including those who did not vote for me in the first round, to support us”, he asked. “Pleasing populism and xenophobia, that is not France”.
For his part, Mélenchon insisted in his speech that “no vote should be given to Le Pen”, but he did not make a call to his followers to vote for Macron.
Paradoxically, between the 19% and the 30% of her radical left voters expect to vote for the far right candidate in the second round, according to different polls released after the results.
And it is that both the voters of Le Pen and the de Mélenchon come mainly from the working classes and it would be difficult for them to vote for a candidate that some brand as the “president of the rich”.
Born to medical parents on 21 from December to 1977 in Amiens, Macron had a brilliant education that allowed him to graduate from the prestigious Sciences Po.
He continued his studies at the ENA, a school of public administration that left-wing politician Jean-Pierre Chevènement has described as the “institute of the bourgeoisie and the French oligarchy”.
After graduating from 2005, Macron began his professional career in the General Inspectorate of Finance of France.
Three years later his career took a turn when he was hired by the Rothschild bank, of which he became deputy director in just two years.
In 2012 held the position of deputy general secretary of the presidency of François Hollande and in 2014 became Minister of Economy and Finance, a post he would resign two years later to launch his presidential candidacy.
During his five-year term, Macron fulfilled some of his promises , such as the reform of the labor code, which meant, among other things, renewing social dialogue in companies.
It also relaxed regulations for hiring and firing employees, in addition to reducing taxes, promoting educational reforms and pass strict security laws to combat terrorism.
His critics reproach him for abandoning his promises to reform the pension system and institutions of the country.
But his government managed to reduce unemployment from 10% to 7.4%, although he did not fulfill his promise to bring it below 7%.
Macron faced many crises during his five-year term.
Among the most serious were the “affaire Benalla” in the middle of 2018, a scandalous court case that mainly involved Alexandre Benalla, the head of security at the president, who was accused of raping two people and usurping the police function.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, candidate of the radical left, asked voters not to vote for Marine Le Pen.
Later that same year, Macron’s management was shaken by the “yellow vests”, a movement that put him in check and that generated violent and massive protests after the Executive’s announcement that it would raise fuel taxes.
In recent years, Macron’s presidency has been tarnished for his handling of the covid pandemic-19 and more recently for his role as a mediator in the war in Ukraine.
Apart from Mélenchon, other candidates have asked their voters do not favor Le Pen, like the right-wing Valérie Pécresse, who got 4,78% of the votes, the socialist Anne Hidalgo (1,75 %) and the ecologist Yannick Jadot (4,63%).
What does your program include?
On labor issues, Macron promises full employment within five years, a tax cut of US$000.000 million a year for households and businesses, and fund it by gradually raising the retirement age from 62 a 65 years.
Regarding French sovereignty and European, stated that it would increase military spending and double the number of reservists. It also promises to strengthen the country’s agrarian independence.
Its energy program includes the creation of six nuclear reactors.
Says that it will also make it possible to file complaints online and that it will recruit “1500 cyber patrollers”.
He also promises to reduce the “cumbersome procedures” for asylum applications and wants the denial of asylum to force people to leave French territory.
And, among other things, he affirms that will seek to give them Greater independence for universities and more support for single-parent families.
Is the “new” Marine Le Pen?
Marine Le Pen during a visit to Lauris, in the south of France, on 15 April 2014.
To your 53 years, Marine Le Pen performs for the third time to the presidential elections; this time under a new label, that of his renewed National Grouping party.
Before entering politics, Marine Le Pen, whose real name is Marion Anne Perrine Le Pen, was a lawyer at the bar of lawyers in Paris and had a very brief career defending immigrants in an irregular situation.
But in 1998 dropped out of high school lawyers and joined the legal team of the National Front, a party in which she was involved since she came of age in 1280.
In 2011, became president of the party with the 75,65% of the votes, and replaced his father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the far-right party in 1972.
Jean-Marie is an extremely controversial character in France.
So much so that even his daughter decided to cut all kinds of ties with him in 2005. He was suspended from the party after he made comments downplaying the Holocaust and praising the Vichy regime, which collaborated with the Nazis.
After losing the presidential election of 2017, promised a “deep transformation of the National Front”.
Since then, in addition to changing its name, it has tried to moderate its anti-immigration and anti-European discourse. He no longer advocates leaving the common European currency or “Frexit”. Nor does she want to end dual nationality as before.
Throughout these years, Le Pen, the youngest of three sisters, has sought to project a more inclusive image, with approaches to the local Jewish community and the new generations of North African descent.
Since the last presidential election, Marine Le Pen has made an effort to moderate her image.
However, his party, which promotes nationalist ideals, continues to be linked with a racist and anti-Semitic discourse by many in France.
Le Pen continues to advocate reducing immigration and reinforcing local production, opposing patriotism with globalization.
After the publication of the first results on 10 April, Le Pen assured that she will be the ” president of all French people” if she is elected this Sunday.
He also addressed the issues he campaigned on, including the reaffirmation of French values, immigration control and security.
Experts also believe that the new far-right contender Éric Zemmour gave Le Pen air.
In this electoral race the controversial journalist showed more extreme positions than the lawyer, which allowed her to be more moderate and appeal to a group of voters who in the last vote considered her too “radical”.
Zemmour, who came fourth in the first round with 7%, backs Le Pen for the second round and some experts believe that the National Grouping candidate can count on the majority of those votes.
Eric Zemmour, journalist and far-right candidate who showed his support for Marine Le Pen on Sunday night.
But Le Pen could also seduce many from the other extreme. In fact, Zemmour has in the past accused Le Pen of “being on the left”.
For some, his economic program resembles that of the radical leftist candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Both promise to improve the purchasing power of the population, intend to maintain the protective State and the celebration of “referendums of popular initiative“.
All this can make the second round of elections be taken by many followers of Mélenchon as a kind of referendum against President Macron.
However, a large part of Mélenchon’s electorate has indicated, according to opinion polls, that they will opt for abstention or for a blank or null vote (between the 35% and the 45%).
What does your program include?
Marine Le Pen promises to put an end to the “abuse” of the right to asylum with a referendum on the restriction of immigration.
Wants to end family reunification and only process asylum applications abroad.
Furthermore, it intends to reserve access to solidarity benefits to those who have worked five years in France, give national priority to access to social housing and employment and systematically deport illegal immigrants and foreign criminals.
In matters of security, he promises to double the number of magistrates and to have 78. prison places for 2027.
Economically, it proposes to reduce the VAT of 20% to 5.5% in energy products, allow companies a salary increase of 10% by exempting the increase in employer contributions and nationalizing the highways to reduce a 15% the price of tolls.
Likewise, it promises workers under the age of 30 years that they will be exempt from paying income tax and says that it will eliminate corporate tax for entrepreneurs under 30 years during the first five years to prevent them from going abroad.
Le Pen rejects any increase in the retirement age and promises link pensions to inflation.
He also wants to ban the wearing of the Islamic hijab in the public areas.
It also seeks to reform the European Union and turn it into an alliance of nations so that they are not questioned by the laws of the body.
For this reason, for many, this Sunday not only the future of France is at stake, but of the European Union and therefore hence, according to some, of the “free world”.
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” in the middle of 2018, a scandalous court case that mainly involved Alexandre Benalla, the head of security at the president, who was accused of raping two people and usurping the police function.
