Many of French believe both candidates in presidential runoff unfit for office
Ramin Mazaheri
Press TV, Paris
The French presidential election is being described as a “populist bloc” of Marine Le Pen versus an “elitist bloc” of Emmanuel Macron, but many don’t seem to want to join either group.
The first round’s third place finisher held an internal poll. Almost 70% of his leftist supporters will either abstain or submit blank ballots rather than vote for either candidate.
France’s Muslims don’t see a choice which isn’t Islamophobic. Macron continues to support bashing “Islamo-leftism” while Le Pen has an on-again/off-again plan to give fines for wearing the hijab in public.
The student class isn’t taking sides either: they recently blocked universities over what they say are “two bad candidates.”
The elder class may provide the key vote. Back when he expected an easy victory Macron promised to raise the retirement age to 65 this fall. Now he’s backtracking, in an effort to win over left-wing voters, but many aren’t sure what his true plans really are.
In 2017 the two mainstream parties were swept out of power, but the repeat second round match-up has many voters upset that new ideas remain absent.
Most polls show Macron leading by around 6 to eight points, but that’s within the margin of error and Western polls have consistently under-counted the right-nationalist candidate. The runoff is on April 24.
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