France’s presidential race wrapped up a tense campaign yesterday after frontrunner Emmanuel Macron filed a legal complaint over rumors that he has an offshore account and both candidates met a stormy reception during final rallies.
Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen had scheduled several news interviews for yesterday, the last day of official campaigning before Sunday’s run-off vote.
At a final rally on Thursday in the northern village of Ennemain, anti-immigration candidate Le Pen told supporters she would give them back the keys to the Elysee Palace.
Photo: EPA
At an earlier stop in the western town of Dol-de-Bretagne, protesters threw eggs at her entourage, although she was not hit.
During a final rally in the southwest town of Albi, pro-European centrist Macron told cheering supporters: “We will keep our promise of change to the end.”
However, the former French economic minister was criticized by about 50 union activists who demanded the abolition of France’s controversial labor reforms from last year.
Macron on Thursday filed a legal complaint after Le Pen repeated rumors that he had an offshore account during a particularly bruising televised debate.
“I hope that we will not find out that you have an offshore account in the Bahamas,” Le Pen said during the debate, which was her last chance to narrow the gap.
Macron would win about 60 percent to Le Pen’s 40 percent if the vote were held now, surveys suggest.
Macron described his rival’s insinuation as “defamation” and after his complaint, French prosecutors launched a probe into who started the rumor.
Macron’s campaign team called it a “textbook case” of “fake news,” saying it was spread on Twitter by accounts close to Kremlin-friendly news sites like Sputnik and RT as well as supporters of US President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, Le Pen’s National Front party said her campaign Web site had been repeatedly targeted by a hacker close to the far-left, who was arrested last week.
During the debate, Le Pen branded Macron “the candidate of the elite” while he called her “the high priestess of fear.”
After the bruising confrontation, a snap poll by French broadcaster BFMTV found that nearly two-thirds of viewers thought Macron was the “most convincing” of the two, mirroring forecasts for the election on Sunday.
The aggressive and often unruly debate shocked many observers used to a more reserved tone in French political discourse.
The Elabe poll for BFMTV showed that Macron had convinced 63 percent of viewers compared to 34 percent for Le Pen, suggesting she did little to win over new voters.
Le Pen tried to portray Macron as being soft on Islamic fundamentalism, playing to the concerns of many of her supporters after a string of terror attacks in France.
However, Macron was in combative form throughout, repeatedly portraying Le Pen’s proposals as simplistic, defeatist or dangerous and targeting her proposals to withdraw France from the euro.
The euro policy “was the big nonsense of Marine Le Pen’s program,” he said.
The euro is “the currency of bankers, it’s not the people’s currency,” Le Pen said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia