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Despite having served as a Socialist government minister, French President Emmanuel Macron has long since burned through the kindness he once had among left-wing voters. “The last time we had serious doubts about him, we told ourselves that at least he came from the left – albeit the free-market left,” said Zahra Nhili, a 42-year-old corporate lawyer. She supported him in the final round of the 2017 election when he faced off against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, a battle that will be played out again this Sunday.
“We’ve finally seen him. He’s clearly a right-winger “Nhili stated.
She was speaking at a trendy artisanal brewery in Nantes’s western city center, which is home to both green-minded professionals like her and working-class families.
Her district, like the rest of the city, overwhelmingly supported Macron’s hard-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon during the first round of presidential races on April 10.
However, while Melenchon finished first in Nantes, a modernising city with a large number of students and electronics start-ups, the former Trotskyist finished third overall and was eliminated.
The top two finishers, Macron and Le Pen, will face off in the second round of the election on Sunday, each needing more than 50% of the vote to win.
Voters like Nhili and her hubby Marc are being urged repeatedly to vote against Le Pen.
For decades, a so-called “republican front” has come together to keep the far-right out of power, uniting the mainstream right and left.
Nhili, on the other hand, felt she did her duty by voting for Macron in 2017, and she’s steadfast she won’t do it again unless polls show Le Pen ahead.
“If it looks like she might get through at the end, we’ll go vote Macron, but my body would suffer to do so,” she said. “What he’s done is disastrous.
“The poor have gotten poorer, while the rich have gotten richer.”
‘It’s in their hands.’
Left-wing voters are expected to be critical in determining the outcome of the election on Sunday.
In the first round, approximately 7.7 million people voted for Melenchon, with another 3.5 million voting for the Greens, Socialists, and other far-left candidates.
