Killer comments

Politicians from across the political spectrum have condemned the crowd at Eric Zemmour’s Sunday rally who were filmed chanting ‘Macron assassin‘ (murderer Macron).

Zemmour himself has also condemned the chanting, but has frequently attacked Macron for what he calls his “lax” approach to immigration, and linked it to terror attacks that have killed scores of French people since 2015 (although many of the terrorists were French citizens, born in France).

After the rally, Zemmour has said that he didn’t hear what his supporters were chanting, prompting Macron to remark on “one of the most important reforms of my presidential term” – hearing aids are now 100 percent covered on state health insurance.

« Macron assassin »: E.#Macron répond à E.#Zemmour: « 2 hypothèses : l’indignité. La deuxième : la méconnaissance d’une réforme du quinquennat, le 100 % santé. Les prothèses auditives sont remboursées par la sécurité sociale, j’invite le candidat malentendant à s’équiper » pic.twitter.com/RAvTIBBGQu

— Guillaume Daret (@GuillaumeDaret) March 28, 2022

Macron rally

Macron himself has finally hit the campaign trail with a public walkabout event in Dijon. He will hold his first major election rally of the campaign on Saturday, at the La Défense arena in Paris.

Although his announcement that he was standing for re-election contained a paragraph saying that he would not be able to campaign ‘normally’ because of the war in Ukraine, Macron has come in for increasing criticism in recent days – including from some of his own supporters – for appearing disengaged from the the campaign trail.

Negativity

Valérie Pecresse is still out of in-person campaigning with Covid, but her team say they ‘hope’ she will be testing negative and out of isolation by this evening in time for a debate on Europe 1. Her earlier attempt at a zoom interview for France 2’s politics show was marked with technical difficulties.

If not, her team says she should be fit to restart campaigning later in the week with events in the Hauts-de-France, in the north of the country. 

Polls

There are of course dozens of polls on the French presidential elections, but The Economist is trying a slightly different model, assessing the mathematical probability of a win by the various candidates.

Macron remains the strong favourite. Our model gives him a 90% probability of victory. But that figure has been sliding back since he announced his plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 65. It is always worth recalling that low-probability events do happen pic.twitter.com/VTtgODqG03

— Sophie Pedder (@PedderSophie) March 27, 2022

Mugs

With social media an important campaign tool for any modern politician, more and more Twitter and Instagram accounts are flooded with political messages and pictures of politicians out shaking hands or handing out leaflets.

But if you want something a little more left-field, head over to the Instagram account of finance minister Bruno Le Maire.

For anyone who likes pictures of men holding cups, I can highly recommend the Instagram of French finance minister Bruno Le Maire. Cup content 5/5 ☕ pic.twitter.com/rsgQLuVPm8

— Emma Pearson (@LocalFR_Emma) March 26, 2022

Candidates’ debates

Monday marks the start of the ‘official’ campaign, which means the broadcast media is governed by strict rules on giving all candidates equal airtime.

On Monday evening a joint debate has been organised by Europe 1, Paris Match magazine and the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, which will be broadcast via social media. As of Monday morning, Fabien Roussel, Anne Hidalgo, Marine Le Pen, Yannick Jadot and Valérie Pécresse had accepted the invitation.