"I say to the voters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, be real rebellious, (...) do not save your head Emmanuel Macron, do not sign for retirement at 65, or for the social damage of the service public", launched on LCI the spokesperson for the candidate of the National Rally, Sébastien Chenu.

Sunday evening, the candidate herself had invited "all those who did not vote" for Emmanuel Macron, from right and left, to "join" her, defending a project of "social justice" and "protection" , a nod to the candidate of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who gathered nearly 22% of the vote.

But the far-right contender did not cite her rival Eric Zemmour, down to 7%, who called to vote for her, nor LR candidate Valérie Pécresse, who tumbled to less than 5%.

We must not "reduce the reservoir of votes to LR or Eric Zemmour", the second round "it will be the anti-Macron", maintains the interim president of RN Jordan Bardella.

The distribution of votes in the first round of the presidential election Sylvie HUSSON AFP

Reservations

The pool of voters, abounded Monday on RTL Louis Aliot, vice-president of the RN, is "among the abstainers but also in the protest vote - and there you have Mélenchon, you have Zemmour, you have Jean Lassalle - there is no shortage of people who no longer want to see Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée".

The voice reserves of the RN candidate at Eric Zemmour and his former ally of 2017, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, bring it to its level of the second round in 2017, or 34%.

"As for the rest, the classic right no longer exists, so to speak, and what remains of it is less receptive than ever to the discourse of Marine Le Pen. This leads her to develop her social theme to generate support. or abstention among left-wing voters", explains the pollster and political scientist Jérôme Sainte-Marie, very listened to in the camp of Marine Le Pen.

However, the RN does not envisage rallies.

"Marine must speak directly to the French, without an intermediary. We must not go looking for Pierre, Paul or Jacques", supports Mr. Aliot.

The candidate of the Reconquest!

Eric Zemmour speaks to his supporters after the announcement of the results of the 1st round, on April 10, 2022 in Paris bERTRAND GUAY AFP

"You have to fight on people's daily lives, on proximity," he adds.

Marine Le Pen goes Monday to a grain farmer in Yonne, while Emmanuel Macron will crisscross Hauts-de-France.

Reconciliation

At Eric Zemmour, whom Marine Le Pen had accused of harboring "Nazis", the support turns out to be a double-edged sword, especially since Emmanuel Macron associates them as "two sides of the same coin".

A rapprochement seems difficult with the RN executives who have defected.

Her niece Marion Maréchal doubted Monday on Europe 1 of her aunt's ability to win without "alliances" on the right.

"Making a unity government with people on the left like Arnaud Montebourg seems to me to be a totally unrealizable fantasy: these people will never come," she lashed out.

Nicolas Bay, former vice-president of the FN who has been in the Zemmour camp, assures that there is "no bargaining" in Eric Zemmour's support for Marine Le Pen in the run-up to the legislative elections.

But the latter considers that these departures from her rival are "without return", and that "no electoral agreement will be made around (their) candidatures" possible for the legislative elections.

The mayor of Béziers Robert Ménard, supporter of Marine Le Pen, even considers that "we can do without" the support of Eric Zemmour, who suffered "a failure of harshness" while "the French today need to be cuddled".

At this stage, Jean-Luc Mélenchon's electorate intends to vote "34% for Emmanuel Macron, 30% for Marine Le Pen, which is more than in 2017, and 36% to remain at the house", according to the director of Ipsos, Brice Teinturier.

© 2022 AFP