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2022 FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Macron talks up green credentials ahead of French election

French President Emmanuel Macron promised to put the environment at the heart of his government if he is re-elected next weekend, in a speech in southern France on Saturday designed to appeal to young and green-minded voters.

Macron talks up green credentials ahead of French election
France's President and La Republique en Marche (LREM) candidate for re-election Emmanuel Macron (C) gestures, surrounded by supporters, at the end of an election campaign meeting in Marseille, southern France on April 16, 2022, ahead of the second round of voting in France's presidential election. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

Macron held a major rally in the port city of Marseille while his rival, far-right leader Marine Le Pen, visited a village west of Paris.

Polls show Macron stretching his lead over Le Pen, with a fresh survey on Saturday by Ipsos Sopra/Steria suggesting that Macron would triumph with 55.5 percent versus 44.5 percent for Le Pen. 

“I hear the anxiety that exists in a lot of our young people. I see young people, adolescents, who are fearful about the future of our planet,” Macron told the rally.

He said a “powerful message” had been sent in the first round of elections on April 10, when nearly eight million voters backed hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon and his ecology-heavy programme.

 “It’s up to us to react and up to us to take action,” Macron said.

As well as promising to make France “the first major nation to abandon gas, oil and coal”, Macron said he would appoint a prime minister who would be formally tasked with “ecological planning”.

He also promised new investments in renewable technologies, energy-saving residential renovations and organic food production, while pledging crackdowns on air pollution and single-use plastics.

The speech was a clear pitch to the young and left-wing voters who backed Melenchon and other candidates in the first round and will be crucial in the second round on April 24.

Some of them are expected to back Macron, with others drifting to Le Pen or abstaining.

Extinction Rebellion activists hold placards with the logo at a protest in Paris

Activists from climate change action group Extinction Rebellion block Paris’ Grands Boulevards during a demonstration on April 16 2022. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)

Several hundred activists from the Extinction Rebellion climate activist group blocked a main road in the centre of Paris on Saturday to denounce the “inaction” of French leaders.

“This world is dying. Let’s build the next one,” read one large banner held by protesters.

Protests
Le Pen meanwhile was touring the village of Saint Remy-sur-Avre, about an hour and half’s drive west of the capital, where she came top in last weekend’s first round. 

After hearing complaints about the loss of hospital beds and bus services locally, she promised to “govern the country like a mother, with common sense” and to defend “the most vulnerable”.

She has sought to moderate her image during campaigning this year, stressing her proposed solutions to rising living costs rather than her usual topics of immigration and Islam.

Protestors holds a banner reading ‘no to the far-right, for justice and equality’ during a demonstration ‘against racism and fascism’ near Marseille’s prefecture in southern France, on April 16, 2022. (Photo by CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP)

Rallies against the far-right were staged in around 30 cities on Saturday, attended by hundreds of people holding placards reading “No to racism”.

READ ALSO: IN PICTURES: Thousands of people take part in anti-fascism protests across France

Le Pen has faced repeated questions this week about her proposed ban on the Islamic headscarf in public places, which she has said will be punished with fines by the police.

The 52-year-old mother-of-three admitted on Saturday it was a “complex problem” and would be discussed by parliament if she won.

But “we need to resolve the problem of women who are obliged to wear it under pressure from Islamists”, she said.

She has also sought to appeal to left-wing voters, who she will need in order to defeat Macron, a centrist who won the presidency standing in his first election in 2017.

“Come out and vote. We are speaking to all the French. We hold out a firm hand but one of friendship and respect,” she told a rally in the southern city of Avignon on Thursday evening.

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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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