Day at risk for Emmanuel Macron in the presidential campaign. The “candidate president” faces Thursday a massive strike by teachers against the management of the health crisis at school, accompanied by demonstrations in which will be present the left-wing candidates, very critical of the government’s health policies in institutions school.
The highest representative of the left in the polls (around 10%), Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) will be among the demonstrators in Paris. The strike shows “a great exasperation in the teaching world” in the face of “the management of the health crisis by the government and, in particular, by the Minister” of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquer, stressed on franceinfo Manuel Bompard, his campaign manager.
Socialist Anne Hidalgo, who believes that “the school has been largely damaged by the policy conducted” by the executive, has also joined the Parisian procession. When she arrived, she was booed by teachers, who criticized her in particular for the Socialist Party’s inaction towards teachers during François Hollande’s mandate.
The communist Fabien Roussel and the ex-minister of François Hollande Christiane Taubira are also expected with professors in the capital.
For his part, Yannick Jadot is demonstrating in Grenoble. “There is a fed up and the President of the Republic must change his minister,” he said this Thursday noon.
Philippe Poutou, candidate of the New Anti-Capitalist Party, should also take part in the mobilization. “Education staff are on strike and demonstrating. Without doubt the best way to be heard, to oppose the government’s catastrophic policy, to give ourselves the means to change the situation together. And also try to get rid of their reaction as a minister, ”he wrote on Twitter. Nathalie Arthaud, the candidate of Lutte Ouvrière, also expressed her support for teachers on the social network.
For Adelaide Zulfikarpasic, director of BVA Opinion, “the main issue is education, which is a major concern in the left electorate”. “This is a crucial question for President Macron in order to broaden his electoral base. The bulk of its voters already came from the left in 2017, but voters still have to go ”on this side, she said.
The first figures for strikers fell at midday. Nearly 38.5% of teachers are on strike in schools, according to the Ministry of Education, while the SNUipp, the first primary union, announces 75% of strikers. In middle and high schools, the figure is 23.7% according to the ministry and 62% for the Snes-FSU, the first secondary school union.
“Disastrous management” of the health crisis
The right is not left out to attack the quasi candidate Macron, always given the favorite in the polls around 25% in the first round.
It is a strike “against Mr. Blanquer and this government, their Kafkaesque vision of the health protocol!” “, Accuses in Le Parisien the deputy LR Damien Abad, education advisor to the right-wing candidate Valérie Pécresse, neck-to-neck around 16% with the candidate RN Marine Le Pen in the voting intentions.
For Eric Zemmour, this mobilization is “legitimate”: “the government does anything and rots the lives of children first,” said on France 2 the far-right candidate (around 12% in the polls) . “There is a problem Emmanuel Macron especially”, added the acting president of RN Jordan Bardella.
The Head of State will address the academics at the end of the afternoon, by videoconference, closing the Congress of the Conference of University Presidents (CPU).
Tensions on the right and on the left of the political spectrum
In a left divided between five candidates and for the moment absent from the second round, Ms. Hidalgo (around 5% of voting intentions) assured France Inter that she would go “obviously” to the end of the presidential election, ” as will Yannick Jadot and Jean-Luc Mélenchon ”.
Even if the popular primary scheduled for January 27 to 30 places the probable future candidate Christiane Taubira in the lead, who should declare herself in Lyon on Saturday. If this consultation “serves to add one more candidacy, it will still have missed its goal,” observed the mayor of Paris, who must detail during the day his full program focused on social and ecological “emergencies”.
The tone is also rising within the far right, engaged in fierce competition. Marine Le Pen “cannot win the presidential election” because “the voters of LR do not want to vote for her”, repeated Eric Zemmour, who wants to be “the only one to unite the rights”.
On Wednesday, the RN candidate accused her rival of serving as a “stepping stone” for Ms. Pécresse, before Mr. Zemmour tax Ms. Le Pen “of Arlette Laguiller from the national right” with a “routine candidacy”.
“Last week, I had dinner with the two, they must stop with these pikes”, lamented on Europe 1 Robert Ménard, mayor of Béziers and support of Marine Le Pen. They will “find themselves in a situation where neither of them will be in the second round and it will be Mme Pécresse! “.