French President Macron’s absence from the campaign trail has some of his opponents thinking he is trying to avoid the debate following his five-year mandate marked by multiple crises. Marine Le Pen party’s spokesperson slammed him as “fearful” on French radio station Europe 1. The National Rally (RN)’s spokesperson Laurent Jacobelli told Europe 1: “I think that Emmanuel Macron, as he has shown, wants to avoid the debate. He has cancelled a number of television programmes, thus depriving the French of the democratic debate that they so much like to see every five years.”
“He cancelled Cyril Hanouna, the public service political programme on France 2.”
While all the French presidential candidates took part in the first round debate hosted by French public television France 2, President Macron was nowhere to be seen. President Macron’s opponents took advantage of his absence to hit at him. Some described his mandate as “a five-year period of increasing violence” and others said that “public schools suffered.”
Mr Jacobelli added: “You can see that Emmanuel Macron is running away. He is running away. Because he has only one fear. It’s that his record will be brought to his face.”
Macron’s government have faced back-to-back crises – some triggered by the government itself like the Yellow Vest protests.
“And that they say to him, but Mr Macron, you were the little Mozart of finance, and you increased our country’s debt by 600 billion.”
“Mr Macron, you have reduced the purchasing power of the poorest French people.”
Emmanuel Macron was a finance minister under the previous administration and used to be a banker before rising to power.
Emmanuel Macron was a finance minister under the previous administration and used to be a banker before rising to power. He has failed to deliver on his 2017 campaign promise to keep the GDP deficit under three percent due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Mr Jacobelli continued: “Mr President, you have allowed insecurity figures to soar, communitarianism to take hold and immigration to gallop.”
“Mr President, all the lights are on and of course, he doesn’t want to talk about it, so he’s using invective.”
Ahead of the second round of the French election, President Macron has been more present on the campaign trail and multiplied media appearances. But his absence from the field has cost him points in the polls as he has steadily been falling. Opinion Way’s latest poll has him winning the election with 53 percent of the votes and 47 percent for his opponent Ms Le Pen.