Paris (AFP) – French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron received a boost Wednesday after veteran centrist Francois Bayrou announced an alliance to counter the “major threat” posed by the far right.
Bayrou, who had hinted for months at his own presidential run, ended the suspense by saying he would not mount a rival bid to avoid splitting the votes of moderates to the benefit of far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
The 65-year-old, who ran three times for president and came third in 2007 with more than 18 percent of the vote, said France’s democracy has “broken down”.
Le Pen, who is riding high in polls, poses a “major and immediate threat for our country and Europe”, he told a press conference.
Macron, who has campaigned as a progressive who is “neither of the left nor the right”, told AFP he had accepted Bayrou’s offer, hailing it as a “turning point” in the campaign and French political life.
Bayrou’s announcement came as anti-corruption police questioned two aides to Marine Le Pen over allegations that she fraudulently used European Parliament funds to pay them for work.
Le Pen, who is a member of the EU legislature, is accused of using funds to pay bodyguard Thierry Legier and personal assistant Catherine Griset a total of nearly 340,000 euros ($360,000) while they worked for the FN in France.
According to the polls, the allegations have failed to check Le Pen’s rise, coming as conservative candidate Francois Fillon battles an even bigger “fake jobs” scandal.
French investigators are looking into pre-tax payments of more than 800,000 euros received by Fillon’s wife over 15 years for a suspected fictitious job as a parliamentary assistant.
Bayrou, who has a reputation for probity, condemned the scandals.
“What is most shocking is the tacit and nearly unanimous acceptance of these abuses,” he said.
Once a key force in French politics, Bayrou’s support has shrunk in recent years.
An Elabe poll Tuesday had shown him likely to garner around six percent of votes in the first round of the election on April 23, compared with 18.5 percent for Macron.
Supporters had already defected to the Macron camp before Bayrou’s announcement Wednesday.
Bayrou described Macron, a 39-year-old former investment banker, as a “brilliant” individual and said he hoped that together they could finally bridge France’s entrenched left-right divide.
– Le Pen surge –
Le Pen, who has vowed to call a referendum on France’s membership of the European Union if elected, has angrily denied the allegations of misusing EU money, describing the investigation as a vendetta.
“The French people are well aware of the difference between genuine cases and political intrigues,” she told reporters during a campaign event.
The anti-immigration, Eurosceptic candidate has topped voter surveys since the start of the race, assuring her a place in a May 7 run-off vote between the top two candidates.
While pollsters believe the 48-year-old trained lawyer will fail to garner the 50 percent needed for victory at the final hurdle, she is closing the gap with both Fillon and Macron in hypothetical second-round match-ups.
A poll in early January by Ifop gave Le Pen 36 percent to 64 percent for Fillon in the second round, a 28-point gap.
She narrowed that to 12 points in an Elabe survey published Tuesday that showed her losing by 44 to 56 percent.
Her numbers are similar in a theoretical duel with Macron, at 42 to 58 percent.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.