"I have the spirit of conquest rather than the spirit of defeat", launched the president-candidate Friday morning on RTL.

No question of being "afraid", he assured, even if the first round campaign ends in a climate of doubt among his supporters.

The president-candidate therefore hardens his tone without waiting for the results on Sunday.

"Marine Le Pen lies to people," he said in an interview with Le Parisien.

By attacking it on its program for the purchasing power which it "will not do" because "it does not finance it".

Her other angle of attack targets the links between the RN candidate and Russian President Vladimir Putin, on whom "she is financially dependent" and with whom she is "complacent".

These criticisms are taken up by the entire majority, like Christophe Castaner, leader of the LREM deputies, for whom Marine Le Pen "is constant in her values, which remain far-right, even if her method is to hide what it really is".

But, for some Walkers, this offensive comes a bit late.

"I am a macronist and frustrated not to have heard Mr. Macron on TV, on the radio ... This gave free rein to his competitors who kept hitting him," said Patricia, a listener questioning the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire Thursday on France Info.

Disrupted program

"Emmanuel Macron went through this campaign. He just made a few appearances and that dented his electoral capital", sums up political scientist Pascal Perrineau.

In total, the president-candidate made a national meeting, five trips and a series of interviews in five weeks of campaigning while his 11 opponents have been criss-crossing France for months.

He also made a short impromptu visit to a market in Neuilly on Friday morning after his interview with RTL.

"It's a fact, I came back even later (in the countryside) than I would have liked," he admitted, explaining that he was prevented by the pandemic and the start of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

President-candidate Emmanuel Macron (LREM) before an interview with RTL, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, April 8, 2022 Ludovic MARIN AFP

"The war changed the game and upset the initial campaign program," said a majority executive.

Priority was given to the multiple calls that the Head of State made to Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky or his European counterparts, and to the international summits urgently decided in February and March.

In the polls, Emmanuel Macron first took advantage of this crisis context but "he has been on a continuous downward trend for three weeks with the end of the + flag effect + around Ukraine", notes Vincent Martigny, professor of Political science at the University of Nice and associate researcher at Cevipof-Sciences Po.

Faced with criticism accusing him of overriding the first round, a Macron campaign adviser acknowledges that "from the start our strategy was that he would be in the second round and the real campaign would start" then.

President-candidate Emmanuel Macron (LREM) at the Neuilly-sur-Seine market, April 8, 2022 Ludovic MARIN AFP

"The first round is not a confrontation. These are candidates who present their projects. Then, afterwards, it's the debate and, there, there is the fight", insists Emmanuel Macron in Le Parisian.

In the event of a new duel with the RN candidate, Vincent Martigny underlines that "the dynamics would be different" compared to 2017: "the polarization then focused on Marine Le Pen against whom it was necessary to block. She could today focus on the outgoing president who arouses very strong + negative affects +”.

"Just saying + no pasaran + will not work this time", concedes a majority adviser.

By indicating that Emmanuel Macron had advised his ministers to attack Marine le Pen "on his program rather than only on values".

© 2022 AFP