French voters spurn mainstream presidential candidates for mavericks
PARIS — Tech consultant Rafik Ait-Oufella says he's tired of France’s two major parties — which have taken turns ruling the country for decades — and their worn-out solutions.
“Work and security are considered values for the right while solidarity and generosity are values of the left,” said Ait-Oufella, 38. “There is no form of consensus to regroup and move forward.”
Attitudes like that explain why an independent, a far-right populist and a far-left dark horse are showing surprising strength going into Sunday's presidential election.
Polls show anti-immigration populist Marine Le Pen and independent centrist Emmanuel Macron are running neck and neck at 23% and 24% in Sunday's first round.
Close behind is Conservative François Fillon, a previous frontrunner who fell to19.5% after a scandal involving using public funds to pay family members for questionable government work. Far-left candidate Jean Luc Melenchon, is a surprise contender with 18%.
"The two parties that have dominated French political life in the last 30 years – the traditional Socialist and the Republican parties – have been struggling,” said political analyst Pierre Haski. "French voters are expressing their fatigue with the old establishment.”
If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two face a runoff on May 7. Eleven candidates are seeking a five-year term as president.
Incumbent Socialist President François Hollande opted not to run for re-election because of sagging popularity over France's economic stagnation and a string of terrorist attacks. Polls show only 8% of French voters support the candidate of Hollande's party.
"The three outstanding figures in these elections — Le Pen, Macron and Melenchon— have platforms which mark a rupture in one way or another,” Haski said.
Their support appears driven by voters' fears of economic globalization and growing immigration, and mistrust of the establishment. Similar concerns led British voters to opt out of the European Union last June and Americans to elect Donald Trump as president in November.
Le Pen’s National Front has gained the most from the political climate. She wants to pull France out of the EU and suspend immigration from the Middle East and North Africa.
"More and more people are embracing Marine Le Pen's longtime patriotic vision in the face of globalization," said Mylene Troszczynski, a National Front member of the European Parliament.
Left Party nominee Melenchon has surged in the polls with a nationalist, populist message that resembles Le Pen’s, including calls for France to alter its relationship with the EU or leave the bloc. He also wants to reduce France’s already-short 35-hour workweek to 32 hours.
Troszczynski said voters appear to have given up on the mainstream parties for failing to revive France's economy and boost jobs.
"They tried the one to the right, one to the left, one to the right, one to the left and so people no longer believe in them," Troszczynski said.
Macron, who had been economy minister under Hollande, quit to create his own centrist movement "En Marche" (Onwards) a year ago. Macron, positioned between the two extremes of Le Pen and Melenchon, proposes to cut taxes to boost the economy and to keep founding member France in the EU.
Ait-Oufella said he is supporting Macron because he "is not dependent on any party. ... He created his own party with pragmatic citizens who say that a good idea, whether it comes from the left or the right, is still a good idea and should see the light."
Analysts such as Haski believe Macron is in the best position to win the presidency, assuming he makes it to the final round. French voters might support Le Pen as a protest vote, but they wouldn’t put her in the Élysée Palace in a runoff, he said.
"Theoretically, he is the one who has the largest space on the center, between those two poles," Haski said.
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