Divided as ever, the candidates on the left are each playing their luck, but are struggling to be heard in a country predominantly on the right, according to the polls.

Right which has so far succeeded in imposing the themes of security, identity or even immigration.

For Jean-Daniel Lévy, deputy director of Harris Interactive France, "there is a problem of credibility on the part of the political offer on the left".

In this reduced space, the leader of LFI, who campaigns in the Hautes-Alpes on Friday, pulls out of the game for lack of gathering, he who had collected the best score on the left in the last presidential election in 2017.

LFI presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon at a meeting on February 13, 2022 in Montpellier Pascal GUYOT AFP / Archives

It is between 10-11% of voting intentions according to the polls far ahead of the opponents of his camp.

The tribune of LFI described as "welcome" the unexpected support this week of the former socialist candidate for the 2007 presidential election, Ségolène Royal, according to whom "the useful vote on the left is the Mélenchon vote".

Asked Thursday evening on BFMTV, he welcomed it all the more since he had vehemently opposed Ms. Royal in the past.

"I don't really like the useful vote because I have suffered from it in the past," he said, but "welcome to all those who are happy with it (his program, editor's note) whatever their vote of departure".

Sponsorships: where are the main candidates Sylvie HUSSON AFP

The representative of the radical left, who is meeting his parliament of the People's Union this weekend, is in the situation he had hoped for a few months ago: to distance the ecologist Yannick Jadot, who competed with him for a time and is now at the around 5%.

And the rebels have been striving for weeks to position themselves as the useful or "effective" vote as they call it, in particular with their former communist allies in 2012 and 2017.

Without success so far.

The Communists gathered behind Fabien Roussel, whose campaign is crowned with a certain success, ensure behind the scenes that Mr. Mélenchon has no chance of reaching the second round.

The PCF presidential candidate Fabien Roussel in a meeting on February 16, 2022 in Montreuil Alain JOCARD AFP

"Our goal is not to take votes from other left-wing candidates" but "to bring French people who have turned away from it back to the left," campaign manager Ian Brossat said in a tweet on Friday.

Attempts to rally on the left have in any case all failed for the moment, as evidenced by the failure of Christiane Taubira, struggling despite her victory in the Popular Primary and to which the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau is eyeing for that she joins Yannick Jadot.

As for the Socialists, the candidate Anne Hidalgo, credited between 1.5 to 3% in the polls and who castigated Thursday a "very ugly, vulgar, violent campaign", she intends to continue her campaign at all costs.

Waiting for Macron

On the right, the LR candidate Valérie Pécresse went on the counterattack after a difficult week by denouncing a "Pécresse-bashing" orchestrated according to her by "the macronists" to discredit her.

LR presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse at a public meeting on February 17, 2022 in Mouilleron-le-Captif, Vendée LOIC VENANCE AFP

“It seems for a few days that I am the woman to be killed”, she launched Thursday evening during a public meeting in Vendée.

Valérie Pécresse, who is due to hold an evening meeting in Le Cannet in the Alpes-Maritimes, is once again given a step back, in fourth position in the first round of the presidential election, behind her far-right rivals Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen, according to a BVA survey for RTL published on Friday.

For her part, the candidate of the National Rally goes to Vienne in Isère.

On the left, Ms. Hidalgo is campaigning in Brittany to talk about employment on the same day when unemployment fell to 7.4% according to figures published on Friday, while Yannick Jadot continued his "tour of possibilities" in Tours.

President Emmanuel Macron attends the second day of the European Union - African Union summit on February 18, 2022 in Brussels JOHANNA GERON POOL/AFP

In the meantime, speculation is rife about when President Emmanuel Macron, leading in the polls, will formalize his candidacy for re-election.

President Macron, in Brussels on Friday, maintains the suspense but the horizon clears up and his agenda emerges at a time when the Covid-19 epidemic is experiencing an ebb and after an intense international sequence linked to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and in Mali.

© 2022 AFP