From our special correspondent in Arras,
At the microphone, the voice is slightly hoarse. But on the stage of Arras, this Thursday evening, Marine Le Pen has the energy for the end of the campaign. The candidate of the National Rally thanks the thousands of activists, transported by bus to Pas-de-Calais, for her last big meeting. Three days before the second round of the presidential election, the local MP is, according to the latest polls, in an outsider position against Emmanuel Macron. But his supporters hope that the televised debate of the day before, which they consider successful, will make it possible to obtain the victory.
“The Republican roadblock no longer works”
Admittedly, Marine Le Pen did not experience the debacle of the episode of five years ago on Wednesday, but the candidate, on the defensive, never undermined the outgoing president. “In 2017, she was too aggressive, now she is being criticized for not having been aggressive enough. I think she succeeded in her debate. She showed that she knew her files in the face of the arrogance of Emmanuel Macron. We feel that for a few days, something has been happening among the French, we are at a tipping point, ”wants to believe Jean-Lin Lacapelle, MEP and spokesperson for the RN, in the spans of the meeting.
A little further, the RN mayor of Beaucaire, Julien Sanchez, is on the same line. “She did the job, without lowering herself to the level of the head of state’s pikes. The goal was not to please our voters, already convinced, but to speak to other French people, insists the spokesperson for the candidate. It is playable because many will not want to vote Macron as in 2017. He is now more hated than Marine. The Republican roadblock no longer works.
Marine Le Pen calls for the “anti-Macron front”
On the stage, Marine Le Pen wears a broad smile. This same smile used the day before to respond to the attacks of his opponent. But this time, the candidate drops much more severe blows against the President of the Republic. During the debate, “we saw Emmanuel Macron nonchalant, condescending, and of unlimited arrogance. A president shouldn’t stand like that. But are we really surprised? His attitude last night, his disdain, is the one with which he has treated the French for almost five years, ”she says, to the boos of the crowd.
The contender for the Elysée accuses him of “not liking the French” and denounces “a five-year term of democratic disintegration”. She calls for a broad mobilization of voters next Sunday. “To block, we do not abstain, we vote, and we vote for the only front that is republican, the anti-Macron front”, she said, trying to overturn the traditional “dam against the far right” , on this anniversary day of April 21, 2002. “Since Emmanuel Macron wanted to reduce this ballot to a referendum: banco! The question is quite simple: Macron or France? “, she asks under the cheers.
A more difficult end to the campaign
But the RN candidate is experiencing a more complicated between-round campaign than that of recent months. By trying to standardize her image more and more to convince the greatest number of people, she sometimes got her brushes mixed up, on the banning of the Islamic veil or on the referendum for the return of the death penalty. After the debate, the latest surveys also give Emmanuel Macron the winner on Sunday between 55.5 and 57.5%, a larger difference than on the evening of April 10.
So, a few hours before the end of the campaign, the candidate calls on the “people of France” to “get up” on Sunday. “It is time to stand up against the oligarchy, against globalism, against the incessant war of all against all. People of France, get up! People of France, get up! “, she says at the end of the meeting. Pending the outcome of the ballot on Sunday, it is a room of believers who is up this evening.