Many French voters opted for Emmanuel Macron, the 39-year-old centrist now favorite to become the next president, just to block his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.
A poll published last week showed that 41 percent of the voters who backed him in the April 23 first round did so out of tactical considerations rather than real conviction, believing he has the best chance of defeating 48-year-old Le Pen in Sunday’s run-off.
But the boyish-looking ex-banker also attracts true followers, who see his youth, pragmatism and optimism as the best remedy for a country mired in economic decline and crippling self-doubt.
“A strong turnaround, that’s what I’m hoping for from Macron,” said Isabelle Babin, a 55-year-old executive who joined dozens of campaigners from the candidate’s “En Marche” (On The Move) movement for a symbolic march on Saturday in the city of Lyon.
The former banker aiming to become France’s youngest ever president may be “smooth, preppy and a little bit of a teacher’s pet,” she admits.
But for Babin, his private sector experience is a breath of fresh air in a jaded political system, whose two main parties crashed out of the election in the first round.
“They cannot understand society because they are outside of it,” she said of his rivals.
Macron’s meteoric rise from presidential adviser in 2012 to economy minister in Francois Hollande’s Socialist government from 2014 to 2016 to presidential frontrunner has been attributed to a mix of talent, opportunism and sheer good luck.
His top spot in the first round triggered rejoicing among members of his year-old “En Marche” movement, which he has positioned as “neither of the left nor the right.”
And yet while he still enjoys a double-digit lead over Le Pen in second-round polls, the gap is narrowing, forcing his troops to re-mobilize.
On Saturday, around 300 En Marche campaigners fanned out along the banks of the River Saone in Lyon to try to woo voters tempted to abstain in the run-off.
“There is only one choice, that of the republic and Emmanuel Macron,” France’s deputy sports minister Thierry Braillard said as he led the supporters.
In the first round, Macron polled 30.31 percent in the bourgeois southeastern city — six points above his national average.
Campaigners there are confident of victory over the anti-immigration, anti-EU Le Pen, who has cast her rival as a puppet of the “oligarchy.”
But they admit that their champion’s mix of pro-business reforms and measures to boost take-home pay and integrate minorities has failed to garner much enthusiasm.
“He’s too capitalist for people on the left and too tainted by Hollande’s presidency for people on the right,” said Emmanuelle Vignaud, a 43-year-old employee of a multi-national company.

Source: Arab News