“Voting is a duty, 2,000 km from here, and democracy is being bombarded”: Macron challenges abstainers

The presidential candidate has warned voters of the temptation not to go to the polls for the second round, akin to Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, as the gap in voting intentions with Marine Le Pen narrows.

And as attacks on his opponent multiply at the polls next Sunday, Marine Le Pen, head of state and candidate for re-election, wants to warn voters who tend to abstain in the second round of the presidential election. “Voting is a duty,” Emmanuel Macron said on Monday during an interview with France 5, less than a week before the vote.

“Voting is a duty. Many fought for this right. 1,500 km from here, democracy is being bombarded. Democracy is not an achievement… Choosing your leaders is a luxury,” he said.

Less than a week before the second round, Emmanuel Macron deliberately used a more serious tone, while narrowing the gap with his rival in voting intentions.

“Avoid the Unthinkable”

Thus, candidate LaREM made a comparison between the vote scheduled for next Sunday and those that sealed Brexit in 2016 in the United Kingdom, or the election of Donald Trump to the White House in the same year.

“Think of what British citizens a few hours before Brexit were saying to themselves or to those who were saying to themselves a few minutes before Trump voted, ‘I’m not going’. I can tell you that the next day we regret not going to vote. If you want to. Avoid the unthinkable, choose for yourselves.”

The president also sent a new message to voters, especially from the left, who would not admit themselves to some or most of his ideas and would no longer want to succumb to the Republican Front.

“There is something that takes root in our democratic debate, which I find unhealthy: to say that ‘if these are not exactly my thoughts, they are of no value.’ He emphasized that democracy is the fruit of consensus, permanent compromise.”

Less than a week before the second round and less than 48 hours before the debate between rounds, polls gave Emmanuel Macron a short lead over the round he already faced five years ago.