"By brutalizing me, he is in reality also brutalizing the millions of voters who vote for me", estimated the far-right candidate after having multiplied the selfies on the market of Etaples, a town bordering Le Touquet, holiday resort of the current head of state, where she came out on top in the first round (37%).

With Emmanuel Macron and his plan to retire at 64 then 65, the "French will take it for life" (perpetuity, editor's note), says Marine Le Pen as she ends her campaign in her stronghold of Pas-de-Calais, where she is an MP.

"Nonsense!" a passer-by quipped.

Marine Le Pen assures that with her the employees "will retire between 60 and 62 years old" and that "to have a full pension, they will need between 40 and 42 annuities".

This means that a large proportion of employees will leave after age 62 to benefit from a full pension.

At a meeting the day before in Arras, she had already sounded the charge against her adversary, "with boundless arrogance", calling on "the people of France" to "stand up" to "fire" him.

"Tight"

The choice is "simple, it's Macron or France", repeated the candidate on the market.

"It's not the polls that make the election," she said when she was given the loser, between 42.5% and 44.5%, according to the latest opinion polls.

But "whatever way I come out" of the presidential election, "I did the campaign I wanted", she adds almost resigned.

This 52-year-old gardener thinks that "Macron must be fired. He has put France in so much misery".

With his salary of 1,300 euros, a rent of 400 and gas at 450, this former "yellow vest" says he only makes "one meal a day" and is waiting for the reduction in VAT on energy products promised by Marine Le Pen .

"It's going to cost all that," retorts Christelle, 50, on vacation from Lille, where she voted Emmanuel Macron.

This insurance employee earns 1,400 euros per month and finds the outgoing president "well structured" while with Marine Le Pen "we just have a shopping list but we don't know how we are going to pay them".

Nostalgia

His son Sacha on his shoulders and a tray of strawberries in his hands, Guillaume, a territorial official, manages to greet Marine Le Pen despite the rush of cameras.

"We no longer want the other, in relation to purchasing power and impoverishment," he says.

Marine le Pen, campaigning in Pas-de-Calais, meets caregivers in a private hospital in Berck-sur-Mer, April 22, 2022 DENIS CHARLET AFP

"It's a bit over the top but that's okay," smiles the candidate, who has become an expert in selfies, to one of her supporters.

"I like dogs too", continues Marine Le Pen, who has several cats, stroking the Cavalier King Charles held in his arms by Benoit, 43, caregiver in Armentières and RN voter.

"We hope she will win, we are crushed by all the increases" and "we have to give the means to the public hospital", he said.

In Berck, the candidate visits a private hospital, the Hopale Foundation, with its director Benoît Dolle who explains that many nurses did not return to work after the Covid.

Marine Le Pen promises to raise wages and notes that with this "painful" job, "no one wants to work until they are 65".

She ends the day with a walkabout along the beach, cheered by her activists who shout "we're going to win".

Conversely, journalists ask her what she will do on Monday in the event of a defeat.

"You're going to jinx me" retorts Marine Le Pen, who assures us that she has "no nostalgia".

Well "not yet".

© 2022 AFP