Macron Vows Ambitious Green Policies, Wooing the Left in Runoff

MARSEILLE, France — On a stage erected on lush inexperienced lawns overlooking the sun-soaked Mediterranean port of Marseille, President Emmanuel Macron declared on Saturday to a crowd of supporters, “The politics that I’ll perform within the subsequent 5 years can be environmental, or won’t be!”

It was an formidable promise for a president whose inexperienced insurance policies have been criticized at repeated local weather protests, condemned by courts for “inaction” and marked by failure to satisfy targets. However above all, Mr. Macron’s vow was a direct enchantment to voters to his left, who maintain the important thing to a ultimate victory within the second spherical of the presidential election — and for whom local weather has change into a key situation.

Mr. Macron devoted about three-quarters of his hour-and-a-half speech to environmental points. He promised to nominate ministers chargeable for long-term environmental planning, to plant 140 million timber by 2030 and to quickly reduce dependence on oil and fuel by creating nuclear and renewable vitality.

“Inaction — not for me!” he advised a cheering crowd of some 4,000 individuals who gathered within the Parc du Pharo, on the heights of Marseille, for what was probably Mr. Macron’s final rally earlier than the April twenty fourth vote.

The occasion symbolized Mr. Macron’s technique for the runoff between the centrist incumbent and his far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen: wooing the left with progressive insurance policies and campaigning in working-class cities the place he’s making an attempt to shed his picture as an aloof president indifferent from on a regular basis realities. If giant numbers of left-wing voters keep residence for the second spherical of voting, or migrate to Ms. Le Pen’s camp, it may spell severe hassle for Mr. Macron.

Stewart Chau, an analyst for the polling agency Viavoice, stated Mr. Macron’s principal aim was to “search voters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon,” the far-left candidate who got here in third total within the first spherical of voting — however first in Marseille, with 31 p.c of the vote.

In September, the president unveiled a multibillion-euro plan to sort out crime and poverty in Marseille.

Promising a “full renewal” if he’s re-elected, Mr. Macron additionally used his speech to assault Ms. Le Pen, accusing her of desirous to curtail freedom of the press, problem gender equality and lead France out of the Europe Union. He’s making an attempt to revive the “dam” that mainstream voters have lengthy shaped by voting for anybody over a Le Pen — both his present opponent or her father, Jean-Marie, leaders of the French far proper for the reason that Nineteen Seventies.

Saturday’s rally capped an intense week of campaigning for Mr. Macron, touring the nation since Monday to make up for a lackluster preliminary marketing campaign. Visiting solely locations the place Ms. Le Pen or Mr. Mélenchon got here out on high within the first spherical, he’s risking partaking with offended residents, in an try to indicate that he, too, can really feel their ache.

Against this, Ms. Le Pen, who has lengthy striven to melt her public picture, has been extra risk-averse, limiting her marketing campaign journeys this week. As an alternative, she has tried to cement her credibility with two information conferences on her institutional overhaul proposals and her overseas coverage agenda.

However these occasions partly backfired after her occasion’s refusal to accredit some media retailers brought on a stir, and as she detailed contentious plans to hunt rapprochement with Russia and stop NATO’s built-in navy command.

Ms. Le Pen has been extra uncovered to scrutiny since one other far-right candidate, Éric Zemmour, didn’t make the runoff. His incendiary feedback opposing immigration and Islam drew a lot of the eye away from Ms. Le Pen, who has lengthy been identified for related stances.

“The shape confronts the substance,” stated Mr. Chau, the analyst, including that Ms. Le Pen’s sanitized picture now clashed with “the truth of her concepts, that are something however appeased, something however softened.”

At a rally on Thursday within the southern metropolis of Avignon, Ms. Le Pen talked about immigration solely 3 times, regardless of it being the cornerstone of her platform. She has proposed deporting foreigners after they’ve been unemployed for one yr, giving precedence to native-born French for social housing and advantages, and abolishing the best to citizenship by way of delivery in France.

Her supporters have been blunter. “She nonetheless desires to kick out the immigrants,” stated Aline Vincent, a French flag in her proper hand, who attended Ms. Le Pen’s rally together with about 4,000 others. “However she doesn’t say it the identical approach.”

In Marseille, Daniel Beddou, stated he “was very frightened” concerning the rise of the far proper. Holding a European flag in his left hand, he stated he was happy by Mr. Macron’s environmental plans. He stated they embodied the president’s “on the similar time” strategy, referring to his behavior of borrowing insurance policies from each the left and proper.

As he appeals to the 7.7 million voters who backed Mr. Mélenchon within the first spherical and seem to carry the important thing to a ultimate victory, Mr. Macron has toned down a few of his proposals, like a plan to lift the authorized retirement age to 65 from 62, which he now says may very well be softened.

On Saturday, he additionally insisted on long-term “environmental planning” — an idea that was a cornerstone of Mr. Mélenchon’s platform — promising to nominate a minister “straight accountable” for it, assisted by two ministers answerable for the vitality and environmental transition.

“There’s an actual willingness to talk to a working-class citizens, a left-wing citizens that we lacked within the first spherical,” stated Sacha Houlié, a lawmaker and spokesman for Mr. Macron’s marketing campaign.

To what extent Mr. Macron’s last-minute leftward tilt will yield outcomes on the poll field stays to be seen.

Many citizens stay disillusioned by Mr. Macron’s tack to the best in recent times. François Dosse, a French historian and thinker who was one among Mr. Macron’s most enthusiastic supporters within the final election, stated his robust stance on immigration and towards Islamic extremism amounted to “recycling the fears of the far proper” and not directly lending credence to Ms. Le Pen’s discourse.

“It’s about taking part in Russian roulette,” Mr. Dosse stated of Mr. Macron’s technique of triangulating France’s electoral panorama. “And it’s a harmful sport during which one can lose — and lose democracy.”

Mr. Macron gained simply 28 p.c of the vote final week, to 23 p.c for Ms. Le Pen and 22 p.c for Mr. Mélenchon, with a number of others trailing behind. Already, some voters are contemplating sitting out Spherical 2, disenchanted by the incumbent’s document.

“In 2017, he was a contemporary face, he was younger, he was formidable — however ultimately, he didn’t do something,” stated Nadia Mebrek, a 48-year-old Mélenchon supporter, including she would doubtless abstain. She was standing within the Rue d’Aubagne, the place two buildings collapsed in 2018, killing eight folks — a testomony to Marseille’s endemic housing and poverty disaster.

“Macron, he protects the wealthy greater than the poor,” stated Ms. Mebrek, who as a private care assistant has at all times been paid solely the minimal wage.

Polls present that solely a 3rd of Mr. Mélenchon’s supporters would again Mr. Macron within the runoff to maintain Ms. Le Pen from energy, with the remainder cut up between a vote for Ms. Le Pen and abstention.

However the first week of the runoff marketing campaign has appeared to favor Mr. Macron. Voter surveys present that his lead within the second spherical has widened. The French president would get 56 p.c of the vote, in contrast with 44 for Ms. Le Pen — his largest lead since late March.

In Marseille, many Mélenchon supporters like Nate Gasser, 26, stated they’d maintain their noses and again Mr. Macron to defeat Ms. Le Pen. “It annoys me to do this, however we’ll vote for Macron,” he stated, insisting that it was not “a vote of adherence.”

“And after that,” he stated, “we’ll take to the streets to protest.”