He has a full campaign team that is fanning out around France, meeting with voters. He makes speeches about his plans for the nation.
The problem?
French President Emmanuel Macron has not yet officially declared that he is a candidate for April’s presidential election.
Photo: Reuters
Critics say he is unfairly using his taxpayer-funded presidential pulpit to campaign for a second term while dragging out his widely expected announcement as long as possible.
Less than two months before April 10’s first round of voting, Macron’s intention is no mystery. He said last month that he has “the desire” to run for a second term, but he wanted to wait for the COVID-19 situation to improve before making a decision.
The deadline to formally declare a candidacy is March 4.
Far-right presidential contender Eric Zemmour accused Macron of trying to use the pandemic to make French voters forget about what he considers France’s decline.
“Is Emmanuel Macron using the health crisis to start campaigning? The answer is yes,” said Marine Le Pen, the other far-right candidate.
Like the US and most European nations, France has started easing most virus restrictions as the infection rate slows down.
Macron also said that he wanted to focus on the Ukraine-Russia crisis first. On the flight between Moscow and Kiev last week, he told reporters that he would “think about” declaring his candidacy later.
“Everything comes in due time,” he said.
Yet his recent trips across French regions tend to increasingly look like campaign events.
A visit this month to northern France, during which he announced an additional 100 million euros (US$113 million) to boost the economy in a former mining area, was followed by dozens of journalists from national and international media.
A meeting with local officials included a key political rival from the Republicans party, Xavier Bertrand, who is campaigning with conservative candidate Valerie Pecresse.
So close to the election, “that visit is a candidate’s visit, with lies and untruths. The hypocrisy must stop. An electoral trip cannot be paid for by the republic,” Bertrand said after listening to Macron’s plans for the region.
Republicans president Christian Jacob denounced “misuse of public money” and said he reported the issue to the National Commission on Elections Financing.
France has strict rules about financing a presidential campaign. The amount of money a presidential contender is allowed to spend for the first round is 16.8 million euros, with an additional 5.6 million euros for those who qualify for the runoff. After the election, France reimburses candidates who won at least 5 percent of the vote half their campaign costs.
In 2012, then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced his bid for a second term — which he lost to Francois Hollande — just over two months before the election. The National Commission on Election Financing later ruled that some expenses he incurred months before to organize a rally in southern France were to be included in campaign counts, even though he had not formalized his candidacy at that time.
Sarkozy was last year sentenced to a year of house arrest for illegal campaign financing. He has appealed the ruling.
Macron’s party has already launched a “campaign of the presidential majority” that is being deployed across the nation via posters and leaflets promoting a Web site called “With You.”
The Web site does not mention Macron’s name, but invites users to subscribe to follow “campaign news.”
The French Constitutional Council announced that Macron was the first to receive the 500 signatures from elected officials that are required under French law to allow someone to run in the presidential election. The rule is meant to limit the number of candidates.
Since Jan. 1, French television and radio broadcasters are also required by law to provide “fair” exposure to all candidates and would-be candidates — based on their estimated weight in the campaign. The rule includes Macron himself, yet its implementation is complex because all comments considered part of the political debate are to be counted, but those attributed to the role of president are not.
The difference can sometimes be subtle.
Macron on Thursday last week went to the eastern town of Belfort to announce the construction of six new nuclear reactors. It is up to the president to decide France’s energy strategy.
In his speech, he also harshly criticized “those who say we don’t need nuclear [energy],” in a reference to the Greens and far-left presidential candidates’ campaign platforms.
“Can you imagine France in 30 years time with 40,000 windmills instead of 8,000 now?” Macron said. “That’s what supporters of phasing out nuclear power are proposing today to the French. It’s not serious.”
Rivals also say that Macron, a pro-European, is using France’s six-month presidency of the EU as a springboard toward re-election.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the