PARIS (Reuters) – President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday vowed to strengthen France’s sovereignty if he wins a second term next month, to steer the country through what he called a new era of crisis, with “the return of tragedy to history”.
Macron’s lead over rival candidates ahead of next month’s election has grown in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He is still seen winning the first round and beating any opponent in a run-off.
“We are at a tipping point where we can make a real difference,” Macron told a news conference, highlighting the war on the European Union’s doorstep and the global challenge of climate change.
Making France a more independent country will be a key objective, he said, as he started outlining his platform, vowing to do everything to protect the country if he remains president.
Opinion polls published over the past weeks see him winning up to 30.5% of the vote in the April 10 first round, from around 25% last month.
Even if he succeeds, Macron will need his centrist La Republique en Marche (LaRem) party – which has failed in all recent local elections – and its allies to win a parliamentary election in June if he is to have a strong base to implement his policies.
It has been an unusual presidential campaign, first dominated by the rise of a new far-right candidate, Eric Zemmour, and now largely overshadowed by the war in Ukraine, which has seen Macron rise in opinion polls and most other candidates become inaudible.
As Macron launches his campaign, he can count on an economic boom that French voters have not seen the likes of in a generation to boost his bid, a point he stressed at the start of his news conference.
“I had promised to lower unemployment, despite the crises we did it,” he said.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, Tassilo Hummel, Richard Lough, Michel Rose; Writing by Ingrid Melander, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
