Emmanuel Macron is closer to winning another term at the helm of Europe’s second-largest economy as nationalist leader Marine Le Pen runs out of time to narrow the gap between them before the presidential runoff ballot on Sunday.
Both candidates are holding their last rallies in areas where they came out on top in the first round two weeks ago — Le Pen chose the northern Hauts-de-France region. Macron is in the southern town of Figeac.
Yet their different world views came into sharp focus, especially on Europe. Le Pen says she wants to transform the European Union into an alliance of nations. Macron said her ties to Russia and other Eurosceptics would wreck the bloc from within. He wants to continue to strengthen the EU by enhancing unity on issues from health to defence.
Macron is leading Le Pen 56.2% to 43.8%, according to a polling average calculated by Bloomberg on April 21. That would give him a narrower margin of victory than five years ago. But if Le Pen gets more than 40% of the vote, she’d likely emerge empowered while he might have a harder time implementing his reform agenda, depending on how parliamentary elections turn out in June.