The leader of the far-right National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, has a much better chance of reaching the second round of the presidential elections in France than the opposition candidate closest to her, the head of the left-wing Rebellious France party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, such an opinion in an interview with RIA The news was expressed by the leader of the French party “People’s Republican Union”, the presidential candidate in the elections in 2017, Francois Asselino.
“Without a doubt, Marine Le Pen has the best chance of reaching the second round. She has maintained the second position in all polls for the past two months, second only to the incumbent President Macron. Despite the nomination of Eric Zemmour, or thanks to him, she is now “midway” more than ever,” Asselino said.
According to him, she stopped talking a lot about the migration issue, which, of course, is presented in her program, but not as widely as the second representative of the rightist camp, Zemmura, who proposes to seriously tighten migration policy. Le Pen decided to focus on the purchasing power of French citizens, which is strongly threatened by two major crises in Europe: rapid inflation due to economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, and now an energy crisis due to events in Ukraine.
“Le Pen was briefly criticized for her good relations with Russia and President Putin, but she managed to distract critics from this precisely because she focused on the daily financial difficulties of fellow citizens. And now the gap between her and Macron is closing,” concluded expert.
Mélenchon, as Asselino notes, had a good campaign, being an excellent orator. However, now, according to polls, Mélenchon is able to gain about 15% of the vote in the first round, while Le Pen – about 23%, the expert noted. So, he added, Melenchon will need the votes of other voters, who in the first round intend to vote for the environmentalist Yannick Jadot, the communist Fabien Roussel, the socialist Anne Hidalgo and others.
“He is hindered mainly by the fact that the French left is divided among many parties … So the polls that predict the final of the second round of elections, as in 2017, are likely to be confirmed. But still Mélenchon has a chance to go to the second round if those who abstain from voting wake up and start voting for the left,” the expert believes.
The first round of presidential elections in France will be held on April 10, the second is scheduled for April 24. Twelve politicians are vying for the top government post, including incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron, leader of the far-right National Rally party Marine Le Pen, candidate of the center-right Republican party Valerie Pecresse, and far-right candidate Eric Zemmour, who founded the Reconquest party. “, the head of the leftist party “Unsubdued France” Jean-Luc Melenchon, the national secretary of the Communist Party Fabien Roussel, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who is running for the Socialists party, a member of the Europe – Ecology – Greens party Yannick Jadot and others.
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