by John Irish and Clotaire Achi
PARIS, April 16 (Reuters) – Protests took place across France on Saturday as opponents of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen sought to form a united front to prevent her winning the second round of the presidential election against the outgoing president, Emmanuel Macron, on April 24.
According to the Minister of the Interior, quoted by several media, nearly 23,000 people in all marched in Paris and in the regions.
Police had warned of possible incidents as protesters gathered in around 30 towns, and law enforcement briefly fired tear gas in the capital in mid-afternoon, but marches broke down. are completed peacefully.
Emmanuel Macron had largely beaten Marine Le Pen in 2017 by rallying readers determined to remove the far right from power, but this year the gap between the two candidates is closer.
During the first round, on April 10, Marine Le Pen succeeded in mobilizing readers by basing her speeches on anger linked to the rising cost of living and the idea that Emmanuel Macron would be disconnected from daily difficulties. She thus obtained 23.1% of the vote, against 27.85% for Macron.
However, the gap between the two candidates has widened slightly this week as attention shifts to Marine Le Pen’s programme. According to an IPSOS-Sopra-Steria poll published on Friday, the outgoing president won the second round with 56% of the voting intentions.
Emmanuel Macron also received the support of former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Franois Hollande. Hundreds of celebrities and sports personalities have also pledged to counter the far right.
CALLING OF GATHERINGS
“The far right is again present in the second round of the presidential election, with a level of voice never reached. We refuse to see it gain power,” said the League of Human Rights of France, in a statement calling for rallies.
Dozens of other rights groups, unions and associations have co-signed the call to demonstrate.
“By rejecting Marine Le Pen, it is a question of preventing the advent of a destructive social project of the rule of law, of the social and united democratic republic that we defend every day.”
On the move in Eure-et-Loir, Marine Le Pen felt that the demonstrations were anti-democratic.
“Coming to demonstrate against the results of an election, I find that it is deeply anti-democratic,” she told reporters. “I want to say to all these people: go and vote!”
With a fragmented and undecided electorate, the election is likely to be won by the candidate who manages, beyond his camp, to convince a greater number of voters that the other option would be much worse.
If a “republican front” succeeded in the previous elections in ousting the far right from power, Emmanuel Macron, who has upset many readers with a style deemed to be abrasive and veering right-wing policies, can no longer count on just one vote. barrage.
(Report by John Irish; French version Kate Entringer and Gilles Guillaume)