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2022 FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Sarkozy’s name jeered at French election rally

The name of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was jeered at an election rally of his right-wing Republicans party on Sunday, reflecting anger at his decision not to join campaigning ahead of next weekend's vote.

Valerie Pecresse at a campaign rally
French right-wing Les Republicains (LR) Ile-de-France Regional Council President and presidential candidate Valerie Pecresse delivers a speech during a campaign rally at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre, in Paris on April 3, 2022. Ludovic MARIN / AFP

The 67-year-old former head of state has declined to endorse the Republicans struggling candidate Valerie Pecresse, who served as his budget minister.

“I absolutely didn’t expect that reaction at all,” Pecresse advisor Yann Wehrling said from the stage at a rally in Paris on Sunday after whistles and boos rang out at the mention of Sarkozy’s name.

“On the contrary, you should applaud him,” Wehrling added, referring to the 2007-2012 leader.

Sarkozy’s refusal to back Pecresse as well as his closeness with President Emmanuel Macron have caused frustration among many Republicans rank-and-file members.

He has always been a popular figure among right-wing French voters, but his standing nationwide has fallen in recent years following two convictions for corruption and illegal campaign financing.

Pecresse is running in fourth or fifth position ahead of next weekend’s vote, polls suggest, with the 2022 election appearing on track to be a re-run of the 2017 contest that pitched Macron against far-right veteran Marine Le
Pen.

Surveys suggest that Macron’s lead over Le Pen is narrowing sharply as next Sunday’s first round approaches, with a second round run-off scheduled for April 24.

A poll for the Journal du Dimanche newspaper on Sunday by the Ifop group showed Macron winning the first round with 27 percent, down 2.5 points in a fortnight, while Le Pen had gained 3.5 points to 22 percent.

In a duel between the two of them, Macron was seen on 53 percent while Le Pen was on 47 percent — in line with several other polls at the end of the last week.

Voter sentiment appears to be highly volatile, and many French people have not made up their minds yet, making the outcome difficult to forecast, experts say.

Consultancy scandal
Macron, meanwhile, held his first rally on Saturday at a stadium west of Paris where he drew around 30,000 people.

Emmanuel Macron greets supporters amid fireworks at first campaign rally

French President and liberal party La Republique en Marche (LREM) candidate for re-election Emmanuel Macron greets his supporters during his first campaign meeting at the Paris La Defense Arena, in Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris, on April 2, 2022. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)

Calling for a “general mobilisation” from his supporters, he warned about the danger posed by Le Pen and fellow far-right candidate Eric Zemmour.

READ ALSO: Macron warns of Brexit-like shock in French election rally

The head of Macron’s parliamentary party Christophe Castaner said that “of course” the president could lose to Le Pen next Sunday.

He told RMC radio that it would be an error to “let anyone believe that the election is won in advance.”

The centrist president’s opponents continue to target him over his governments’ use of expensive management consultancies during his term in office following a highly critical report from the Senate last month.

A Senate investigation found that spending on outside consulting firms such as McKinsey had more than doubled from 2018-2021, reaching more than a billion euros ($1.1 billion) last year, a record.

Rising hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon criticised Macron for “inviting the private sector into the state. Who can believe that a private company would give advice in the public interest?”

The head of Le Pen’s National Rally party, Jordan Bardella, said that “Emmanuel Macron has become the front for private interests”.

Macron and his aides have sought to stress that France uses consultants less than some other large EU members and that outside help had been required for technical missions such as IT or cybersecurity, as well as during the
Covid-19 pandemic.

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POLITICS

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

New Caledonia's main international airport will reopen from Monday after being shut last month during a spate of deadly unrest, the high commission in the French Pacific territory said, adding a curfew would also be reduced.

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

The commission said Sunday that it had “decided to reopen the airport during the day” and to “push back to 8:00 pm (from 6:00 pm) the start of the curfew as of Monday”.

The measures had been introduced after violence broke out on May 13 over a controversial voting reform that would have allowed long-term residents to participate in local polls.

The archipelago’s Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their vote, putting hopes for eventually winning independence definitively out of reach.

READ ALSO: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Barricades, skirmishes with the police and looting left nine dead and hundreds injured, and inflicted hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The full resumption of flights at Tontouta airport was made possible by the reopening of an expressway linking it to the capital Noumea that had been blocked by demonstrators, the commission said.

Previously the airport was only handling a small number of flights with special exemptions.

Meanwhile, the curfew, which runs until 6:00 am, was reduced “in light of the improvement in the situation and in order to facilitate the gradual return to normal life”, the commission added.

French President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the voting reform that touched off the unrest would be “suspended” in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead he aimed to “give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order”, he told reporters.

Although approved by both France’s National Assembly and Senate, the reform had been waiting on a constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Caledonian pro-independence movements had already considered reform dead given Macron’s call for snap elections.

“This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties,” the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said Wednesday before the announcement.

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