Macron courts green voters with eight days of French campaign to go

Protesters in Paris urge voters to stop far-right Marine Le Pen winning presidency

Emmanuel Macron holds a rally by the historic Mediterranean harbour in Marseille. EPA

Emmanuel Macron courted green voters at an election rally in Marseille on Saturday, with eight days to go until France decides the president’s political fate.

Speaking by Marseille’s Mediterranean harbour, Mr Macron said young voters had sent a “powerful message” by backing eco-minded leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon in the election’s first round.

Those voters are being courted by the president and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen before the final ballot between the two on April 24. The eliminated Mr Melenchon was by far the most popular first-round choice in Marseille.

“I hear the anxiety that exists in a lot of our young people. I see young people, adolescents, who are fearful about the future of our planet,” Mr Macron said.

“It’s up to us to react and up to us to take action.”

The president said that under his leadership, France would be the first major nation to abandon oil, coal and gas.

He promised new investments in renewable energy and crackdowns on air pollution and plastic.

Mr Macron’s plans include building up to 14 new nuclear reactors and 50 offshore wind farms by 2050, as well as increasing solar power capacity.

He said his next prime minister would take charge of what he called “green planning”.

In Paris, hundreds of Extinction Rebellion activists blocked a main road in the city centre to denounce what they described as the inaction of French politicians.

At a separate rally in the capital, anti-Le Pen protesters urged people to put their doubts about Mr Macron aside to stop the far right from capturing the presidency.

“Better a vote that stinks than a vote that kills,” read one placard, using a slogan that rhymes in French.

Similar rallies were held in about 30 cities, amid concerns that the “republican front” which typically unites voters against the far right is weakening.

Polls since the first round have shown Mr Macron with a consistent but not unassailable lead, with one survey by Ipsos suggesting that more than half of Melenchon voters had no preference between the two options.

Ms Le Pen toured the village of Saint Remy-Sur-Avre, west of Paris, where she topped the poll in last Sunday’s first round.

While Mr Macron woos Mr Melenchon’s green-minded supporters, Ms Le Pen is going for the more working-class part of that electorate by focusing on the cost of living and rising food and petrol prices following the war in Ukraine.

After hearing complaints about the loss of hospital beds and bus services locally, she promised to “govern the country like a mother, with common sense” and to defend “the most vulnerable”.

But Mr Macron urged voters not to buy his opponent’s softer tone.

The president’s allies warned the public that Ms Le Pen would steer the country out of the EU.

“The far right represents a danger for our country. Don’t just hiss at it, knock it out,” Mr Macron said in Marseille.