Neither Macron nor Le Pen

“Presidential elections usually evoke, if not hope, at least some kind of enthusiasm,” he said. written today Le Monde. On the other hand, the debate between the first and second rounds of the elections is very weak, the debate between two candidates playing on the demonization of the other was cut short and punctuated by disagreements and protests.

On Tuesday, April 12, Emmanuel Macron held a public meeting in Strasbourg that was boycotted by some gunmen who called the outgoing president a “social traitor” before they were forcibly expelled by the security services. On the same day, Marine Le Pen was also greeted in Vernon with a series of protests: “Marine Putin!” And “fascism,” they shouted at her. The next day, the far-right candidate’s press conference was again “disturbed” by some activists who wanted to denounce Le Pen’s closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Explain every five years Le MondeThe French are trying to believe the myth of a divine candidate who will succeed where his predecessor failed. After his victory a more or less permanent state of bliss arises, and the magic gradually disappears.” However, this dynamic does not exist today: the debate is exclusively about the outgoing president who is against the far right, and the far-right candidate who wants to liquidate the outgoing president. “It is difficult to create a sense of belonging in this context,” and “hostility, not enthusiasm,” prevails.

In light of the second round, “Emmanuel Macron turned to the rejection dynamic.” Not a day goes by without the president describing his opponent as a “far-right” candidate or not emphasizing the seriousness of Le Pen’s project aimed at dismantling the European Union and the rule of law. This demonization aims to reactivate a “Republican Front” that can stop Le Pen. Le Pen is using the same strategy that she has called on “everyone who did not vote for Emmanuel Macron” to join her in an effort to stop the outgoing president.

So far, the tendency of voters and electricians in the first round of the French presidential election has been to pick their favorite candidate and eliminate, on the ballot, the candidate they least like. But this time, political scientist Jerome Jaffrey commented in an interview on le Figaro, The situation was reversed: in the first round those who went to vote chose to eliminate many of the candidates and candidates present, to the point that Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon single-handedly received three-quarters of the vote.

Thus, the so-called “useful vote” led to the French repeating a clash – which occurred between Macron and Le Pen, just as in 2017, which according to opinion polls, the French said they no longer wanted. Most likely the result of a high abstention in the second round and a widespread sense of anger and frustration with institutional policy.

Climate in light of polling has been well represented, in the past few hours, by hundreds of students who have related Some universities in Paris, Nancy, Reims and other cities in the country launched the common slogan “Neither Macron nor Le Pen”.

President des jeunes, hein …
🎥 Tweet embed# Sorbonne University pic.twitter.com/OhDiubQEri

– Marcel (@realmarcel1) April 14, 2022

The most important occupation on Thursday 14th April was the occupation of the Sorbonne, the historical university in the capital: to protest against it First round result The presidential election, to denounce the “lack of social ambitions of Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen”, the “absence of a real program to combat global warming”, in the prospects of the candidates for the ballot, and in general, the “wrong choice” that arises between them.

“We are all anti-fascists!”
Students students to invest in the Sorbonne et al. # negative_world #SorbetSharkCookie #nemicron
📹 Tweet embed pic.twitter.com/0rrK4RUFWd

– Servo not available (CerveauxNon) April 13, 2022

In the past two days, inside the universities, there have been public rallies (“We are all anti-fascists,” sung several times in Italian) and banners hung outside buildings (the ones at the Sorbonne say “Sorbonne occupied against Macron, Le Pen and their world”). It was written on the inside as “Fascism kills, let’s fight it” or even “stone by stone, we will destroy Emmanuel Macron”. The numbers of lawyers and associations that would be called in the event of police intervention were written on the board, and leaflets were distributed on which the rights of each person in the event of arrest were written.

And private clashes took place in Paris. Objects were thrown from the windows of occupied buildings, school administrators were formed outside universities with people present to support students, and police charges and attempts were made to disperse the crowd with tear gas. not injured.

“Young people are facing a wrong choice,” he said. She said student Release. Another: “Macron and Le Pen do not represent us at all. These are two poor choices compared to each other and we are tired of having to choose between plague and cholera. And we wonder what future we will see in a few years.” And again: “We will have five years of extreme liberalism or fascism. This is a disaster for our generation. We feel that these elections have been stolen from us and that our future has been stolen from us. We are interacting.”

Today, Friday, students will return to the streets and demand that Paris seize universities across the country in protest.

The young people who are demonstrating are Most likely these which voted in the first round for the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who did not pass the ballot for just over 420,000 votes. The France Insoumise leader was actually the most voted down among those under the age of 25. Melenchon urged his voters and electricians not to give Le Pen a single vote, but without giving an explicit reference to Macron. Melenchon then launched, as in 2017, an online consultation among his fighters to choose between three options: vote in Macron, empty ballot, abstain. The results will be announced tomorrow.