French Presidential Hopefuls Take on Macron in 1st Round of Presidential Election

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - France is set to hold the first round of its presidential election on Sunday, deciding whether Emmanuel Macron will stay in top office for another five years or be replaced by someone else, most likely the leader of the right-wing National Rally party Marine Le Pen.

French presidents are elected directly by the country's citizens aged 18 and over, living in France or other places. To become a candidate, a person must be nominated by at least 500 elected officials. The election is taking place in two rounds, with the first one scheduled for Sunday and the second one, between the two candidates with the highest voter counts, for April 24.

In addition to Macron and Le Pen, the list of presidential candidates includes Republican candidate Valerie Pecresse, Eric Zemmour of the right-wing Reconquete party, left-wing politician Jean-Luc Melenchon, Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel, and leader of the right-wing France Arise party Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.

Candidate for the Socialists and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, candidate from the French Greens Yannick Jadot, a Trotskyist Nathalie Arthaud of the left-wing Workers' Struggle party, lawmaker Jean Lassalle and left-wing politician Philippe Poutou are also seeking the top post.

Macron Marching On

Macron entered the French presidential politics five years ago as a largely unknown politician despite previous tenures as the economy minister and deputy secretary-general of the Elysee Palace. Since then, he worked hard to become one of the most recognizable politicians in his country, Europe and the world.

Elected as a pro-business candidate, Macron imitated a series of sweeping reforms that in turn generated an equally strong backlash in the form of the Yellow Vest movement.

While originally poised for a comfortable victory, his electoral position has become considerably shakier, as Le Pen has been gaining enough ground to be considered a viable contender.

Part of the reason for that is his involvement in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, during which Macron has become one of the key representatives of the European side, engaging in dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This, however, distracted him from France's domestic affairs, which did not improve his already sketchy image as the "president of the rich" among the French public.

Nevertheless, Macron promises to strengthen the country's sovereignty in various areas and help it to pass through turbulent times, promising to raise the retirement age from 62 to 65, decrease inheritance taxes and boost public investment in green energy.

Le Pen Redux

Macron's main rival in the 2017 election, Le Pen has been written off by many following her previous defeat by Macron, marked by her disastrous performance at the presidential debates, as well as the rise of another maverick right-wing politician Eric Zemmour, whose more caustic and in-your-face style of campaigning ran contrasted to Le Pen's attempts to soften her image.

This combination seems to have paid off, however, as Le Pen has been closing the gap with Macron in the days leading to the first round. While her campaign platform is not that much different from her previous ones, including the promises to abolish birthright citizenship and a referendum on immigration, she has dropped the idea of banning dual citizenship or bringing back the death penalty. What is more important, she has focused on issues like the people's purchasing power, undermined by increased inflation and the current energy crisis.

While she has been criticized for being way too friendly toward Russia, Le Pen seems to have weathered those criticisms and is now viewed as the woman who can be able to take Macron down a peg.

Melenchon as Left's Biggest Hope

While the Left is amply represented among the presidential hopefuls this year, most of the most promising candidates are right-of-center like Macron or right-wing, like Le Pen and Zemmour. This leaves Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of the France Unbowed party, as the Left's best hope for victory, as he is running third in the polls.

A veteran leftist politician, Melecnhon is running on a detailed policy platform, which included fighting climate change, lowering the retirement age, raising the minimum wage and taxing the rich. He also proposes to overhaul the country's political system, by reducing the role of the president.

Zemmour Joining Fray

Despite being a novice politician, Zemmour is not a stranger to politics having spent decades as an author, journalist and public commentator, covering things from an unabashedly right-wing perspective, which has earned admiration in some corners and ire in others.

Zemmour is running on two major issues which he believes threaten the country: the demographic crisis which he describes as the Great Replacement of ethnic French of European descent by non-Europeans, and the alleged Islamization of the country. While concerns about immigration, multiculturalism and Islamic extremism have been echoed by other candidates, including Macron and Le Pen, none has seized those issues with the same vigor and panache as Zemmour. At the same time, this approach has landed him in hot water and left him with hefty hate-speech fines.

Even though he initially seemed like the breakaway candidate in this election circle, his star has faded significantly in the days preceding the first round, and now he is trailing behind Macron, Le Pen and Melenchon.