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- 01 30, 2025
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SEVEN MONTHS ago Emmanuel Macron stood in the gardens of the Palais du Pharo in Marseille, before the sunlit backdrop of the old port, and declared: “If we can’t succeed in Marseille, we can’t make a success of France.” On April 16th the sitting president was back in the same majestic setting for his first rally before the final vote at the , on April 24th. The Mediterranean city did not vote for Mr Macron in the , preferring the radical-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon. So the president was on hostile ground. But, by returning to the spirited, rebellious city, Mr Macron seemed to be saying: if he can win over Marseille, he can succeed in winning over France.In the the two finalists, the centrist Mr Macron and the populist-nationalist , were out chasing the votes of those who picked neither of them in the first round. The biggest chunk of these are the 7.7m people (22% of voters) who backed Mr Mélenchon, many of them young and green-minded. Conscious of this, Mr Macron vowed in Marseille to put the environment “at the heart” of a second term, to double the pace of France’s effort to reduce carbon emissions, and to make France the first big country to end the use of fossil fuels. The run-off, he declared, was a choice between fear and hate on the one hand; and respect, diversity and ecology on the other.