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2022 FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

‘Not a single vote’: Losing candidates urge French voters not to back Le Pen

Several of the losing candidates in the first round of the presidential election called on French voters to back Emmanuel Macron, however there were two defeated candidates who called on supporters to back Marine Le Pen.

Published: 10 April 2022 21:23 CEST

'Not a single vote': Losing candidates urge French voters not to back Le Pen

French leftist party La France Insoumise (LFI) presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon reacts as he addresses party supporters at Cirque D'Hiver in Paris on April 10, 2022. (Photo by Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)

Ten presidential candidates were eliminated from the race for the Elysée in Sunday’s first round vote, but they still have a chance to influence the second round.

In the aftermath of the results several candidates urged voters to follow their lead when it comes to the second round vote on April 24th.

Here’s what they had to say.

Pro-Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday received the backing of the defeated Socialist, Communist, Green and
right-wing candidates in his second-round election battle later this month against far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

In a boost for the president, Communist Party candidate Fabien Roussel, Socialist Anne Hidalgo, Yannick Jadot of the Greens and right-wing Republicans candidate Valérie Pécresse said they would vote for him to prevent the far-right leader coming to power.

“I will vote for Emmanuel Macron, in good conscience, to stop Marine Le Pen coming to power,” Pécresse told a crowd of supporters.

“I am calling on those electors who trusted me to consider the seriousness of any vote different to my own at the second round.”

Valérie Pécresse: "Je voterai, en conscience, Emmanuel Macron pour empêcher l'arrivée au pouvoir de Marine Le Pen et le chaos qui en résulterait" pic.twitter.com/6cAE0jkBn2

— BFMTV (@BFMTV) April 10, 2022

The third-placed candidate, left-wing firebrand Jean Luc Mélenchon, stopped short of instructing his supporters to vote for Macron, but was clear that they should not support Le Pen.

“We know who we will never vote for… Not a single vote must go to Mrs Le Pen,” Melenchon said at his party headquarters in Paris, stopping short of telling supporters they should back Macron.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon: "Il ne faut pas donner une seule voix à Madame Le Pen" pic.twitter.com/hdkeP6G6cb

— BFMTV (@BFMTV) April 10, 2022

Pro-Le Pen

Far-right TV pundit-turned-candidate Éric Zemmour predictably appealed to his supporters to vote for Le Pen in the second round.

“I don’t make a mistake over who my opponents are. I call on my voters to vote for Marine Le Pen,” Zemmour told supporters after being knocked out of the contest in the first round.

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a fringe sovereigntist candidate also called on his supporters to back Le Pen.

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.