Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen urged voters to choose “between Macron and France” as she held her final campaign rally in the northern town of Arras on Thursday, hoping to sway undecided voters ahead of Sunday’s final presidential vote.
The leader of the Rassemblement National (National Rally) party ripped into President Emmanuel Macron in a fiery address to supporters, recovering the combative spirit that had largely deserted her during their televised debate on Wednesday.
Blasting her opponent’s “unbounded arrogance” during the debate, in which Macron is widely believed to have prevailed, Le Pen cast herself as the “president who will respect the French” versus an incumbent “who does not like them”.
“A president should not behave that way,” she said of Macron’s conduct during the televised face-off. “But are we really surprised? His contempt last night mirrored that with which he has treated the French people over the past five years.”
French presidential election © France 24
Le Pen, who is making her third run for the Elysée Palace, is hoping to be the first far-right leader of modern France and the first woman to hold the presidency.
