You can always tell that a candidate is nervous when they wheel out foreign leaders to endorse them.
Pollsters may give President Emmanuel Macron a narrow but decisive edge ahead of Sunday’s presidential run-off against far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen, but he is clearly leaving nothing to chance.
“We need France at our side. A France that has been, again and again, a beacon of democracy and fraternity in Europe and the world.”
So say Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Portuguese premier António Costa and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a joint opinion piece in El Pais. They say that Sunday’s presidential election is “critical” to ensure a strong European Union in the face of new challenges such as Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Their praise for Macron is matched by their criticism of his rival Marine Le Pen, whom they accuse of siding with “those who attack our freedom and democracy.”
“Populists and the far-right in all our countries have been upholding Putin as an ideological and political role model, replicating his chauvinist ideas,” the leaders add.
Macron may not have personally urged his fellow government leaders to pen their joint missive, but it is inconceivable that he did not know about and approve the text.
Such an intervention in a national election is rare. European leaders tend not to get involved in the election campaigns of their peers. That the three leaders felt the need to break ranks and publicly urge the French people to back Macron is indicative that the race is close and that the stakes are high.
It is also significant that all three leaders are of the moderate and centre-left. Conspicuous by his absence from the signatories is Italy’s Mario Draghi, whose politics and background, as a technocrat economist and Goldman Sachs banker, are much closer to Macron’s. That points to Macron’s need to rally French leftist voters on Sunday if he is to be reelected. Should he win, as expected, he will also need the left vote to obtain a majority in June’s legislative elections.
Less clear is whether the intervention of the three Macronists is a smart tactic. Political and celebrity endorsements do not always work, particularly in an age where voters are far less deferential towards their political leaders than their parents were.
Macron can point to it as a demonstration that Europe’s leaders hold him in high regard and are aware of the importance of France’s place in the EU. But it also fits in nicely with Le Pen’s narrative. Her team will have an easy time spinning this as patronising, unwanted and unwelcome foreign interference, an example of the elitist politics that she stands against.
Besides, those with long memories will remember how President Barack Obama and others urged Britons not to vote to leave the EU ahead of the Brexit referendum in 2016 know how that tactic backfired, despite the fact that Obama had high popularity ratings in Britain. Voters tend not to like anything that smacks of being told what to do.
Source: euractiv.com
