The Fort Worth Press - Macron's rivals turn up the volume two weeks from vote

USD -
AED 3.67266
AFN 72.222913
ALL 91.451201
AMD 395.728672
ANG 1.801027
AOA 915.518606
ARS 1065.379897
AUD 1.596144
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.700398
BAM 1.801236
BBD 2.01759
BDT 121.420875
BGN 1.80237
BHD 0.376962
BIF 2960.568426
BMD 1
BND 1.330257
BOB 6.920084
BRL 5.854504
BSD 0.999332
BTN 87.324618
BWP 13.652166
BYN 3.270249
BYR 19600
BZD 2.007275
CAD 1.444055
CDF 2875.000283
CHF 0.88008
CLF 0.024564
CLP 942.620275
CNY 7.260503
CNH 7.249225
COP 4181.25
CRC 503.6816
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 101.549513
CZK 23.108009
DJF 177.948463
DKK 6.880899
DOP 62.561878
DZD 133.220137
EGP 50.609899
ERN 15
ETB 128.26347
EUR 0.922545
FJD 2.300503
FKP 0.774289
GBP 0.776485
GEL 2.774993
GGP 0.774289
GHS 15.45265
GIP 0.774289
GMD 71.500047
GNF 8637.411387
GTQ 7.707746
GYD 208.983542
HKD 7.76814
HNL 25.616127
HRK 6.951904
HTG 133.030993
HUF 367.244364
IDR 16296.96735
ILS 3.645801
IMP 0.774289
INR 87.099066
IQD 1310.331451
IRR 42002.603428
ISK 135.755734
JEP 0.774289
JMD 157.055612
JOD 0.708989
JPY 147.345497
KES 129.492281
KGS 87.450039
KHR 4000.896347
KMF 454.161678
KPW 900
KRW 1449.445468
KWD 0.308601
KYD 0.820006
KZT 491.126908
LAK 21659.758467
LBP 90300.085305
LKR 295.239936
LRD 198.891857
LSL 18.208721
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.8262
MAD 9.737009
MDL 17.980001
MGA 4693.345651
MKD 56.580003
MMK 2099.872226
MNT 3471.226837
MOP 8.003646
MRU 39.935307
MUR 45.120143
MVR 15.460009
MWK 1733.34265
MXN 20.369185
MYR 4.415006
MZN 63.60198
NAD 18.208721
NGN 1512.41338
NIO 36.6244
NOK 10.776005
NPR 139.423829
NZD 1.76078
OMR 0.384899
PAB 1
PEN 3.656185
PGK 4.014412
PHP 57.468959
PKR 279.865636
PLN 3.847342
PYG 7940.604188
QAR 3.640089
RON 4.589691
RSD 108.094243
RUB 91.339007
RWF 1402.902997
SAR 3.749975
SBD 8.41041
SCR 14.930963
SDG 598.912484
SEK 10.12438
SGD 1.331063
SHP 0.785843
SLE 22.850317
SLL 20969.505638
SOS 571.451413
SRD 35.500001
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.749695
SYP 13001.913453
SZL 18.208721
THB 33.60614
TJS 10.904812
TMT 3.500281
TND 3.084509
TOP 2.387202
TRY 36.58196
TTD 6.794422
TWD 32.873199
TZS 2603.468249
UAH 41.386893
UGX 3669.996496
UYU 42.43627
UZS 12918.995866
VES 64.578447
VND 25484.911769
VUV 122.506502
WST 2.807405
XAF 605.548904
XAG 0.031114
XAU 0.000345
XCD 2.7
XDR 0.751208
XOF 605.548904
XPF 110.161498
YER 248.078727
ZAR 18.319545
ZMK 9001.197478
ZMW 28.449718
ZWL 321.999592
  • RIO

    -0.1000

    62.21

    -0.16%

  • BTI

    -0.3400

    40.56

    -0.84%

  • RBGPF

    69.7700

    69.77

    +100%

  • BP

    0.1400

    32.21

    +0.43%

  • CMSC

    -0.1300

    22.98

    -0.57%

  • NGG

    1.3100

    62.14

    +2.11%

  • GSK

    0.2700

    40.32

    +0.67%

  • RYCEF

    -0.8100

    9.5

    -8.53%

  • RELX

    -0.7800

    47.32

    -1.65%

  • AZN

    -1.5100

    75.99

    -1.99%

  • VOD

    0.0300

    9.45

    +0.32%

  • BCC

    -2.4500

    99.17

    -2.47%

  • SCS

    -0.2300

    11.5

    -2%

  • CMSD

    -0.1150

    23.215

    -0.5%

  • JRI

    0.1400

    12.89

    +1.09%

  • BCE

    0.3800

    25.18

    +1.51%

Macron's rivals turn up the volume two weeks from vote
Macron's rivals turn up the volume two weeks from vote

Macron's rivals turn up the volume two weeks from vote

Candidates in France's looming presidential election pushed at the weekend to make themselves heard over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with a re-run of 2017's final showdown still the most likely outcome.

Text size:

Buoyed in part by his shuttle diplomacy ahead of the conflict and toughness on Moscow since the tanks began to roll, liberal incumbent Emmanuel Macron is riding high in the polls with two weeks to go.

But as the president "is totally absorbed by the international crisis, it's very difficult to be present and to campaign", a source close to him told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Short of a major upset, his opponent in the runoff will be far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen -- exactly the same setup as five years ago.

A trio of candidates -- far-right rival Eric Zemmour, conservative Valerie Pecresse and left-winger Jean-Luc Melenchon -- still hope they can break out from the pack and take on Macron in the second round.

"Everything could be decided in the two weeks to come, they could count double," Adelaide Zulfikarpasic of the BVA Opinion polling group told AFP.

"Four out of ten voters who say they are certain to cast their ballot are still undecided" on a candidate, she said.

- Brawl on the right -

On Sunday, Zemmour hopes to rally up to 50,000 people a stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, bussing in supporters from other parts of France.

"This will be the event of the campaign, the biggest gathering," the candidate told Sud Radio on Friday, insisting that "since the beginning, my meetings have touched off the greatest excitement."

Yet Zemmour, a former columnist and TV commentator, has fallen below the 10 percent mark in some polls.

That is far short of support ranging around 20 percent for Le Pen and close to 30 percent for Macron.

The National Rally leader strove to project serenity as members of her own camp -- including her niece Marion Marechal -- deserted her for tougher-talking Zemmour.

Instead Le Pen has pounded the pavements campaigning on French streets and market squares, and this week urged potential Zemmour voters to back her if she reaches the second round as forecast.

"No one owns their voters," she told M6 television, adding that "I hope if I'm in the second round they'll join us."

With Zemmour and Le Pen slogging it out for the hard-right vote and Macron sounding pro-business and law-and-order notes, conservative Valerie Pecresse has struggled to make herself heard.

Her woes deepened Thursday when she announced that a positive Covid-19 test would keep her from planned campaign stops in western France and the southeast.

- Divided left -

Also Sunday, the leading left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon -- polling at 12 to 15 percent -- was rallying supporters in the Mediterranean port city Marseille.

Former banker Macron's presidency has been dogged by left-wing resistance, including on law and order and economic issues, peaking with the "Yellow Vests" demonstrations in 2018 and 19.

But a political left divided among a slew of competing candidacies has yet to make a real mark on this year's election.

"Don't hide behind the differences between the leaders, you're the ones who will make the decision, don't shirk it," Melenchon said at a Paris meeting a week before.

His hopes of making the second round could be thwarted by others still hoping for a miracle, including Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo -- polling around just two percent for the once-mighty Socialist Party -- Communist candidate Fabien Roussel and Greens boss Yannick Jadot.

The woes of Pecresse and Hidalgo, candidates of the traditional bastions of left and right that dominated the political scene just a few years ago, illustrate the longer-term factors beyond the Ukraine conflict that have scrambled French politics.

"The systematic voter who voted out of duty, the voter who was loyal and faithful to political parties or to candidates... no longer exists," said Anne Muxel, research director at Paris' Centre for Political Research (Cevipof).

"Voters have a much more independent, individualised relationship to politics and to their electoral choices, they're much more mobile, more volatile" -- especially given that "the majority of French people don't feel represented by political office-holders."

burs/tgb/js/har

F.Carrillo--TFWP