Dijon, France: French President Emmanuel Macron launched a campaign on Monday and quickly defeated his far-right rival, Eric Zemour, with the election less than two weeks away.
From his high position as head of state to the turmoil and turmoil of domestic politics, Macron traveled to the eastern city of Dijon for a classic pre-election walkout and high school visit.
He was asked about images from a Zemor rally in Paris over the weekend, in which a crowd chanted “Killer Macron” as a former anti-immigration TV pundit criticized the government for allowing foreign criminals into the country. Had it.
Macron’s aides have criticized Zamor for failing to condemn the chants, while Zamor’s team has said he did not listen to them.
“There are two theories: the first is that this is a shameful act, which seems most believable, but not surprising,” Macron told reporters in the scorching spring sun.
“The second is my lack of knowledge about a very important reform during my tenure,” he said, before explaining how the cost of hearing aids was now fully covered by the Social Security system.
“I invite the less-heard candidate to solve it themselves at a lower cost,” he said.
Macron has so far been deliberately out of the campaign and refused to engage directly with his opponents, insisting he has to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic and later the war in Ukraine.
Monday marked the start of the official campaign period, leading up to the first round of voting in April, with all 12 candidates now eligible for the same amount of time and space in the media.
The top two candidates in the first round will have to go through the run-off of the second round on April 24.
Macron is the current favorite to win, with the war in Ukraine seen as helping raise his profile. According to the survey, the far-right Marine Le Pen is running in second place.
A new poll by the Ipsos/Sopra Steria group, published in Le Monde newspaper on Monday, showed Macron leading 28 percent from the first round, while Le Pen rose 1.5 points to 17.5 percent.
Le Pen has continued to run a low-key campaign, which has seen his usual radical rhetoric on immigration shift in favor of focusing on household income, the top priority of voters.
Zemor, who participated extensively in opinion polls in September and October last year teasing the presidential ambitions, has dropped to fourth or fifth place.
Frederick Dabi, a leading polling expert at the Ifop group, stressed that the race remains unpredictable, despite Macron’s apparent strength in voter polls.
“While I see little interest in the campaign, when I see that a quarter of the French have not made up their mind … things may still change,” he told the Public Senate channel.