Emmanuel Macron dramatized Thursday the stakes of the legislative elections by presenting himself as the only one who can bulwark the “extreme” left and right which, in the event of victory, “would add to the world disorder a French disorder”.
In the rural setting of Puycelsi, a picturesque village of 450 inhabitants in the north of the Tarn, the Head of State toughened up his speech three days before the first round.
Without detours, he displayed himself as leader of the majority by launching a direct appeal to the voters: “from June 12, let us make in conscience the solid choice of republican clarity without concession”.
And to urge them to give “a strong and clear majority” to the candidates Together! (LREM, Modem, Horizons and Agir), which the polls put neck and neck with those of the left alliance Nupes around Jean-Luc Mélenchon, far ahead of those of the National Rally of Marine Le Pen.
Without quoting them, he refers back to back to these two forces which he describes as “extremists”, to which he says he is convinced that the French, “brave people”, will not “give up anything”.
“What the far right, like the far left, is proposing is to go back to everything that has enabled France to be stronger and to hold up in the face of past crises, (…) often being against everything,” he says.
Because, according to him, “choosing to turn our backs on globalisation, to explain that nationalist withdrawal would be a solution or to choose to prohibit and call into question the freedom to undertake or to innovate in our country, in a project which is essentially made up of prohibition and taxation, it is to choose to weaken us”.
Conversely, Emmanuel Macron called on the French to “follow the path of consistency, competence and confidence” rather than that of “posture, casualness and adventure”.
Defending his presidential program, he erected as an “urgency” the fight against inflation, considered the No. 1 problem by voters according to the polls.
For this, “as of this summer, we must be able to initiate some major projects”, including that of the “purchasing power” bill, which should be presented to the Council of Ministers after the second round of June 19, according to him. .
While he is sometimes accused of immobility since his re-election, he also wants “the retirement project” and “major ecological planning projects” to be launched this summer, other priorities for the second five-year term.
On all these issues, he denounced the promises of the opposing lists because “there is no magic money”, warning against financing by “hidden taxes or debt which will further weaken” the country.
He also accused Nupes and the RN of “adding crisis to the crisis” by wanting to “return to the alliances which, like NATO, ensure collective security and protect the peoples” when “I speak with Russia which killing civilians in Ukraine”.
Less virulent than the day before, Jean-Luc Mélenchon nevertheless wanted to respond to Emmanuel Macron, believing that “the role of the Head of State is not to come to the rescue of the raft of the Medusa”. And for him, “It is extremely serious to accuse his opponents of weakening the unity of the country”.
Devoted to security in rural areas with a visit to the gendarmerie, the trip to Tarn was Emmanuel Macron’s last stop before the first round, after those of Cherbourg on emergencies, Marseille on school or Clichy-sous-Bois on Wednesday on youth in working-class neighborhoods.
On several occasions, he called on ministers to beat the ground, like Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, present Thursday in Côtes-d’Armor, Manche and Calvados, where she is a candidate.
The challenge for him is to secure an absolute majority in the National Assembly, while the latest polls place Nupes slightly ahead of the Macronists, with 28% of voting intentions against 27% according to an Ipsos Sopra Steria study for France TV and Radio France.
09/06/2022 17:42:34 – Puycelsi (France) (AFP) – © 2022 AFP
