Protests are expected around France on Saturday as opponents of far-right presidential candidate Marin Le Pen seek to form a united front to prevent it from winning the runoff against incumbent President Emmanuel Macron on April 24th.
The police warned of possible incidents, as demonstrators gathered in 30 cities.
Macron, a pro-European centrist, won the presidency in 2017 after easily defeating Le Pen when voters gathered behind him in the runoff to keep the far right out of power.
This year, the first round of voting put the same battle, but Macron faces a much more difficult challenge.
He is a little ahead in opinion polls, but before the first round on April 10, Le Pen successfully intervened in anger over the cost of living and the perception that Macron was excluded from everyday difficulties. She finished with 23.1% of the vote, compared to 27.85% for Macron.
This week, however, she looked more shaken as the focus shifted to her program, and opinion polls showed Macron extending his lead. A poll by Ipsos-Sopra-Steria on Friday showed that the president won the runoff with 56% of the vote.
He won the support of former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande. Hundreds of celebrities and sports figures also supported him in blocking Le Pen’s rise to power.
Le Pen, whose position is anti-immigration and Eurosceptic, has in recent years sought to soften his image and that of her National Rally party. Opponents, including Macron, said her program was full of lies and false promises, an accusation that Le Pen denied.
“The far right is again in the second round of the presidential election, reinforced by an unprecedented level of support. We refuse to see her win power, “said a joint statement from the French League for Human Rights announcing the protests, which was signed by dozens of other human rights groups, unions and associations.
Speaking to reporters during the suspension of the campaign in southern France, Le Pen dismissed the planned protests as undemocratic.
“The restaurant is worried,” she said. “The fact that people are protesting against the election results is deeply undemocratic. I tell all these people just go and vote. It’s so simple.”
With a fragmented and indecisive electorate, the election is likely to be won by a candidate who can reach outside his or her camp to convince voters that the other option would be far worse.
For decades, a “Republican Front” of voters of all kinds, uniting behind a mass candidate, has helped keep the far right out of power.
But Macron, whose sometimes rude style and right-wing policies have upset many voters, can no longer automatically count on that support.
Climate change activists from Extinction Rebellion forced the closure of a main square in central Paris on Saturday to protest the two candidates’ environmental programs.
“This election leaves us no choice between a far-right candidate with disgusting ideas … and a candidate who for five years turned his back on the issue of ecology and lied,” Lou, 26, a history teacher who joined the environmental movement. Wednesday two years earlier, he told Reuters.
Protesters against Macron will also gather in Paris on Saturday.
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