The presidential candidates did not fail to criticize Mr. Macron’s statements on Tuesday about his desire to “piss off” those who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Several presidential candidates roamed France on Saturday to meet voters, while opponents of the vaccine pass hope to see the ranks of their demonstrations swell after Emmanuel Macron’s remarks. 92 days before the first round, the countryside leans to the West: Yannick Jadot in Angers, Eric Zemmour in Sables d’Olonne (Vendée) and Anne Hidalgo in Jarnac (Charente). Further south, Marine Le Pen remains in Occitanie and goes to Trèbes (Aude), after Béziers on Friday and before Perpignan on Sunday. Finally Valérie Pécresse addressed the press in Paris in the morning.
On the ground or at their campaign HQs, the candidates all have their eye on the demonstrations of opponents of the vaccine pass, while new Covid-19 contaminations are breaking records. The most important parade is expected in Paris, under the aegis of ex-FN Florian Philippot. Protesters hope to get more participation after Mr. Macron’s statements on Tuesday about his desire to “piss off” those who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The outgoing president and quasi-candidate drove the point home on Friday, citing “forms of expression that seem familiar that (he) fully assumes”.
Macron, an “arsonist” for Pécresse
The LR presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse blasted on Saturday a president Emmanuel Macron “pyromaniac” and “disconnected from the deep aspirations” of the French, promising by contrast to be a “president conductor” if she reached the Elysee. “Emmanuel Macron who claimed to want an exemplary Republic has become a counter example” which “fuels the rejection of all authority figures,” she said during a press briefing at her campaign headquarters. “I fight the extremes just as much, but it is the president in place that I want to debunk”, she added, surrounded by her ex-competitors in the primary Xavier Bertrand, Eric Ciotti and Michel Barnier, as well as the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher and leaders of LR Christian Jacob and Annie Genevard.
Denouncing the “solitary” and “talkative” presidency of the Head of State, of which she criticized an “accumulation of renouncements”, Valérie Pécressse assured him: “I will not be a solo president but a president conductor. “. “France is too fragile today for an arsonist president,” she said, promising that her presidency would be “one of solutions, convictions, respect, courage and duty”.
To read :Valérie Pécresse, the real campaign begins
Asked about Eric Zemmour’s quest for sponsorship, Valérie Pécresse felt that “helping him is not my role and it is not the role of Republicans”. But “when a political figure represents a current of thought in public opinion, he must be able to stand for the presidential election,” she added. Invoking Voltaire, she affirmed that “we must fight so that all those who do not think like us can say it”. “But we must fight them on the level of ideas and on the democratic level”, she added. As for the idea of anonymous sponsorship, “the question arises when a certain number of mayors find themselves not daring to sponsor a candidate”, which is “problematic for democracy”, she said.
In Trèbes, candidate RN Marine Le Pen also denounced the vaccination pass – which must be examined next week in the Senate – which, according to her, consists in “dividing French society, pointing the finger at scapegoats, which the president of the Republic assumes that it wants to persecute “.
To read :Ifop poll, “Piss off the unvaccinated”, limited political damage for Macron
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