French voters veer to the right

For the moment, Emmanuel Macron is leading in all the polls. But in France, the ballot takes place in two rounds. If in the first round, on April 10, no one obtains an absolute majority – which is almost certainly the case – the two candidates having obtained the most votes reach the second decisive round, on April 24.

So it could be Macron and Le Pen. This battle can get exciting. If those who voted for Zemmour and Pécresse in the first round vote for Le Pen in the second round, Le Pen could post a high score.

Macron and Le Pen also faced each other in the previous elections in 2017. Macron then obtained 66% of the vote and Le Pen 34%.

Purchasing power as a common thread

But since then, Le Pen has done a lot to adapt his radical right-wing image to electoral wishes. Its economic projects have received a social facelift. About two-thirds of her electoral manifesto is about improving purchasing power: she wants to allocate billions of public money to financially support the French in all sorts of ways. “Give the money back to the French!” is a catchphrase she uses often.

Zemmour and Pécresse do not intend to use the public treasury as much for income support. “Le Pen is now economically on the left, she is rhetorically populist and she is traditionally nationalist,” noted political scientist Gilles Ivaldi last week. In summary, he called him a “social populist”. “And that sets her apart from other right-wing candidates.”

And this strategy does him no harm. With the rise in the prices of gas, electricity and oil, purchasing power has once again become the main subject of the electoral campaign.