French
presidential election candidate for the En Marche ! movement Emmanuel Macron
gives a speech as he unveils his full programme eight weeks from election day,
on March 2, 2017 in Paris.<br />Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
French centrist presidential
candidate Emmanuel Macron promised new laws to clean up politics on Thursday as
scandals deepened for his rivals Francois Fillon and Marine Le Pen.
Conservative ex-premier Fillon
revealed Wednesday he is set to be charged over allegations he paid his wife
and children hundreds of thousands of euros for a fake parliamentary job.
He was accused by Dominique de
Villepin, another former prime minister from his Republicans party, of driving
the right wing “into the abyss” as he continued campaigning in southern France.
Far-right leader Le Pen’s
legal woes also deepened as the European Parliament lifted her immunity to
allow her to be prosecuted for retweeting images of Islamic State atrocities.
The anti-EU, anti-immigration candidate also faces a separate
parliamentary expenses investigation and a campaign financing probe in France —
all of which she, like Fillon, denounces as a plot to thwart her bid for power.
Macron, who founded his independent movement “En Marche” (On the
Move) last April, promised a “strategy to make public life more ethical” as he
unveiled his full programme for the first time.
The 39-year-old said he would bring in a ban on parliamentarians
employing family members, bar candidates with criminal records from standing
for public office, and increase the scrutiny of MPs’ expenses.
Taking aim at his scandal-plagued rivals, he also accused them of
“deliberately attacking our rule of law”.
A new poll published Thursday showed Macron scoring 24 percent,
ahead of Fillon’s 19 percent but behind Le Pen at 27 percent in the first round
of the election on April 23.
In a second-round run-off on May 7, Macron is shown beating Le Pen
if the vote were held today, but analysts warn against firm forecasts after a
rollercoaster campaign so far.
– Grassroots support? –
Fillon, a 62-year-old conservative, visited winegrowers in Provence while facing his biggest challenge yet to keep his Republicans party behind him.
Fillon, a 62-year-old conservative, visited winegrowers in Provence while facing his biggest challenge yet to keep his Republicans party behind him.
He has called the charges over the fake jobs scandal “entirely
calculated to stop me being a candidate for the presidential election” and has
ruled out stepping aside.
But defections from his team and calls from senior Republicans for
him to make way for former premier Alain Juppe, 71, underlined the divisions
and fears in his camp.
“The French people back me,” he told journalists defiantly. “The
base is holding.”
He was the favourite at the turn of the year to become France’s
next leader after clinching the nomination for the Republicans in November.
But the allegations that he used public funds to pay his
British-born wife Penelope as an assistant for 15 years, with little work to
show for it, have eroded support.
– European dream? –
The main beneficiary of Fillon’s woes has been Macron, who sought Thursday to take on critics who say his pro-European, pro-business platform lacks detail and substance.
The main beneficiary of Fillon’s woes has been Macron, who sought Thursday to take on critics who say his pro-European, pro-business platform lacks detail and substance.
Mixing traditionally rightwing measures such as easing strict
labour controls and cutting taxes, he also stressed the need for new investment
in public schools and measures to help deprived, high-immigrant areas.
“We are not looking to adapt or reform, but to transform,” Macron
told hundreds of journalists at a launch event to set out his agenda.
Drawing a stark contrast to Le Pen, who has called for France to
withdraw from the European Union, Macron said that “it’s obviously Europe that
is at the heart of our project”.
Macron believes France is
too small to compete on its own in a globalised world and wants deeper
integration between countries that use the euro, which would include the
creation of a eurozone budget.
“Our responsibility in the years to come is to be able to rebuild
the European dream,” he said, adding that he would seek to persuade the zone’s
richest member Germany to invest in other countries.
– Solid Le Pen support –
While support for Fillon has slumped due to his legal problems, Le Pen’s has remained solid and even risen slightly despite the investigations into her and her party, most polls suggest.
While support for Fillon has slumped due to his legal problems, Le Pen’s has remained solid and even risen slightly despite the investigations into her and her party, most polls suggest.
“The thing about the judicial affairs for Marine Le Pen and the
National Front is that they are not about personal enrichment, while Francois
Fillon’s family is directly implicated,” far-right expert Cecile Alduy from
Stanford University told a conference this week.
The investigation in focus on Thursday concerns graphic pictures
including that of a beheaded journalist that Le Pen posted on social media in
2015.
They were addressed to a French television journalist who had
likened her National Front party to the Islamic State group, leading police to
open a probe into “the dissemination of violent images”.
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