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Official campaign posters of Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen Alamy Stock Photo

Macron launches bitter attack on Le Pen as lead slips in French polls

A poll yesterday showed Le Pen winning 47.5% of the vote in a second-round run-off against Macron.

PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON has launched a bitter attack against far-right leader Marine Le Pen after warning supporters to take nothing for granted in an increasingly tight French election.

Macron is due to address a rally for the first time in his re-election campaign in Paris on Saturday as the clock ticks to the first round of France’s presidential polls on 10 April.

The president, who was late entering the campaign as he was sidetracked by Russia’s war against Ukraine, for the first time attended a meeting at the headquarters of his Republic on the Move (LREM) party last night.

“The president-candidate called for a collective mobilisation, based on the idea that nothing is won yet,” a source, who took part in the meeting, told AFP.

His attendance, which had not been announced by his team, came after a series of polls showed that Le Pen, the president’s main election rival, is catching up on Macron, who has long been the overwhelming favourite to win.

The latest Elabe poll published yesterday showed Le Pen winning 47.5% of the vote in a second-round run-off against Macron, who was projected to garner 52.5%, a smaller margin than in the same poll last week.

With a margin of error of up to 3.1 points, those figures suggest Le Pen could theoretically emerge as the winner in the second round.

‘Le Pen can win’

Analysts say Le Pen has been helped by focusing on basic issues like dwindling purchasing power and also by seeming more moderate in comparison to her fellow far-right candidate, the ex-pundit Eric Zemmour.

“Of course Marine Le Pen can win,” Macron’s former prime minister Edouard Philippe said in an interview with the Le Parisien daily posted online today.

Philippe, who has founded his own party but is generally seen as an ally of Macron, added that “if she wins, believe me, things will be seriously different for the country … Her programme is dangerous”.

The ex-premier, a heavyweight seen as playing a part in the next government or even as a successor to Macron in 2027, said that the president was “by far” the best candidate standing.

On a campaign visit to the southwestern town of Fouras, Macron insisted that there was no difference between Le Pen and Zemmour. They were both “extreme right,” he said.

There is a “duo on the far right and I’m fighting it”, Macron said, lamenting the crumbling of the traditional “republican front” against the extremes.

“People have normalised it, looked away, they’re saying ‘they’ve got nicer’ … so we shouldn’t be surprised” to see a strong Le Pen, he added.

Macron’s re-election had been seen by many observers as almost a foregone conclusion, as polls suggested Le Pen would again be his rival in the run-off, a repeat of the vote five years ago.

But he formally entered the election campaign only at the last minute, citing his diplomatic efforts to halt Russia’s war in Ukraine as the reason for the delay.

Recent days have seen the government on the defensive over liberal use of public money on expensive management consultants such as US-based giant McKinsey.

© – AFP, 2022

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    Mute Paul Roche
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    May 12th 2014, 8:45 PM

    The bigger they are, the slower they pay.

    148
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    Mute The Hooded Biscuit
    Favourite The Hooded Biscuit
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    May 12th 2014, 11:52 PM

    So true, got to the stage with my business where I have refused work from some large businesses who think I should be grateful, not worth it for the pain of constant chasing and chasing.

    22
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    Mute Ian Mac Eochagáin
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    May 12th 2014, 9:18 PM

    “Payment managers”? Intrum Justitia are debt collectors who use underhand methods (anonymous voicemail messages and hand-delivered notes) to chase up debtors. If everyone started paying their bills on time Intrum would go out of business.

    That’s not exactly true about Finland. Well, maybe the stats are, because people are more disciplined. Here if you forget to pay a bill (which has happened to me once or twice) it takes them a week or two to notice and then they send you a reminder.

    57
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    Mute Jimbo
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    May 12th 2014, 8:33 PM

    Well that sucks balls.

    51
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    Mute Noble Gas
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    May 12th 2014, 8:50 PM

    We pay after 65 days – contracts says 30. Drives the Germans and French suppliers banana’s

    40
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    Mute Crocodylus Pontifex
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    May 12th 2014, 9:04 PM

    Not as bananas as that unnecessary apostrophe is driving me.

    76
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    Mute Joseph Siddall
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    May 12th 2014, 9:14 PM

    Noble Gas, …..and you’re proud of that fact ? Suppose your company don’t expect it’s customer to honour payment terms so they can take the p1ss as well. Pathetic excuse for management.

    56
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    Mute Kevin Higgins
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    May 12th 2014, 8:45 PM

    Jobs jobs jobs, FG can’t even do that right and it’s all they do. Skew figures

    39
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    Mute Gaucho Doyle
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    May 12th 2014, 10:21 PM

    Getting paid business to business in sixty days would be good in Ireland. It’s more like 90 to 120, you ask some campanys to pay you after 30 days and they look at you like you have two heads and then come up with any accounting excuse not to pay you. ‘Oh we won’t be doing a cheque run till the end of the month’, ‘One of the directors is away at the moment, so we won’t be able to issue a cheque till he’s back’ bla bla bla Then why do you order these goods and services!!!!!!!!!

    39
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    Mute Happy Go Lucky
    Favourite Happy Go Lucky
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    May 12th 2014, 10:45 PM

    You forgot the cheque is in the post…

    18
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    Mute blah!
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    May 12th 2014, 9:07 PM

    Ok maybe I’m missing something, the article, in paragraph two, refers to “unpaid bills”, then further on states that for business to business, payments are made around 29 days with 14 days the norm for public sector payments. Prompt payment legislation, as far as I know, requires payment to be made within 30 days from receipt of invoice. These are not “unpaid bills” or “late or non-payment of debt”. Maybe 30 days is too long in our digital age but at least call it what it is. On time, legislatively compliant payments. Or perhaps the problem is elsewhere, lack of credit to cover the 30 day period. That would be the banks again….

    33
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    Mute Dave Mac
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    May 12th 2014, 9:48 PM

    Intrum justicas sales manager!!

    He just let slip that you don’t have to pay them!

    Idiot!

    26
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    Mute Simon O'Keeffe
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    May 12th 2014, 9:34 PM

    Doh! What do they think jobsbridge was created for.

    17
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    Mute Patrick Linehan
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    May 12th 2014, 10:47 PM

    It’s called the Tragic Roundabout. I can’t pay A because I haven’t been paid by B who’s owed money by C.

    13
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    Mute Lisa Saputo
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    May 12th 2014, 11:55 PM

    Are debt collectors called payment managers now?

    13
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    Mute Christopher O Callaghan
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    May 18th 2014, 1:16 AM

    Payment managers/credit controllers/credit management advisors etc

    1
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    Mute Christopher O Callaghan
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    May 18th 2014, 1:16 AM

    Payment managers/credit controllers/credit management advisors etc

    1
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    Mute GATHERINGYOURMONEY14
    Favourite GATHERINGYOURMONEY14
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    May 12th 2014, 11:38 PM

    The bust shmall chounthry ta doo bwisnish in.
    Because you don’t have to pay your suppliers.

    8
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