17 April 2022•Update: 17 April 2022
By Shweta Desai
PARIS
Outgoing President Emmanuel Macron held a campaign rally Saturday to woo left-wing environmental voters by promising a host of green measures and castigating his far-right opponent’s political program as “climatosceptique.”
“The far-right is a climatosceptique project … it does not believe in (climate change),” Macron said of the National Front’s candidate Marine Le Pen at the rally in Marseilles.
Macron, the candidate for the Republic on the Move party, is facing widespread criticism and discontent from younger voters and students for neglecting the climate program and indulging in right-wing politics.
In the face of ongoing demonstrations that are calling for mass abstention for the final round of the presidential election on April 24 and to vote “neither for Le Pen nor for Macron,” the president is facing a steep challenge to ensure maximum votes in his favor.
Macron must attract every vote from opponents if he wants to maintain a lead against Le Pen, according to pollsters. He must particularly target left-wing voters and supporters of Jean-Luc Melenchon who came third in the first round of voting last week with 21% of votes.
The majority of those voters have intended to not vote for Macron for failing to give weight to ecological and socio-economic issues.
Macron confessed that during his first term his government did not do much and promised to act moving ahead.
“A good part of our compatriots made us hear on April 10 at the polls to put the environment at the heart of our campaign and the years to come for France,” he said, calling voters to have a “new perspective” by re-electing him to a second term.
Addressing the mostly young crowd who are worried about the future of the planet, Macron said it is a challenge to convert “eco-anxiety” into action and ambition.
He said if elected, his government will divert its attention to ecological issues. He wants to appoint ministers for energy planning to eradicate France’s use of “gas, oil and coal" and another point person for territorial ecological planning for environmental transition, and ensure the next prime minister is “directly responsible for ecological planning."
He said steps will be taken to build the French economy ecologically and move “towards carbon neutrality by 2050."
He also promised to train more than 400,000 people in ecological transition energy, industry, recycling, and repair, organize a Nature Festival and improve air quality, among other measures.
