France yesterday began voting in an election that is to decide whether pro-EU centrist French President Emmanuel Macron keeps his job or is unseated by far-right euroskeptic Marine Le Pen in what would amount to a political earthquake.
Opinion polls in the past few days gave Macron a solid and slightly growing lead as analysts said that former National Rally president Le Pen — despite her efforts to soften her image and tone down some of her party’s policies — remained unpalatable for many.
However, a surprise Le Pen victory could not be ruled out, given the high numbers of voters who were undecided or not sure if they would vote at all.
Photo: AP
With polls showing neither candidate able to count on enough committed supporters, much would depend on a cohort of voters who are weighing up anxiety about the implications of a far-right presidency against anger at Macron’s record since his 2017 election.
If Le Pen does win, it would likely carry the same sense of stunning political upheaval as the British vote to leave the EU or the election of Donald Trump as US president in 2016.
Polls opened at 8am and are to close at 8pm. Initial projections by pollsters are expected as soon as polls close.
In Douai, a mid-sized town in northern France, pensioner Andree Loeuillet, 69, said she had voted for Macron.
“He has his faults, but he has qualities too. He is the one best placed to continue, we are living through difficult times,” she said.
Macron has warned of “civil war” if Le Pen — whose policies include a ban on wearing Muslim headscarves in public — is elected and has called on all democrats to back him.
Le Pen focused her campaign on the rising cost of living in the world’s seventh-largest economy. She has also zeroed in on Macron’s abrasive leadership style, which she says shows an elitist contempt for ordinary people.
Among early voters in the village of Souille, civil servant Pascal Pauloin, 56, said he had voted for Le Pen out of disenchantment with Macron.
“Frankly, I am very disappointed. Our France has not been working well for years. Macron has done nothing for the middle classes, and the gap with the rich is getting ever wider,” he said.
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