Most of the 10 candidates who lost yesterday's first round called on their supporters to block Marine Le Pen.
He said today that he also wanted to reach out to Le Pen's voters. He noted that he respected his opponent, but "I fight against Madame Le Pen's ideas; I want to speak to her voters".
However, extremism is clearly higher now than then. A third of voters yesterday chose a far-right candidate. And a further 22% voted for the far-left, meaning that more than half of the voters preferred an extremist – and Macron has failed utterly to fulfill his promise.Sunday's first round confirmed what was already a trend, as none of the traditional center-left and center-right candidates could even attract five% of the vote.
Opinion polls show that Macron is considered a good statesman, and the best man to lead the country in a crisis. The French feel he has done a good job overall in handling the Covid pandemic, and backed his shuttle diplomacy over Ukraine. But that may not be enough to see him re-elected.
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