PARIS, (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron launched a scathing attack on far-right rival Marine Le Pen today saying her true “authoritarian” intentions were showing after she banned a team of reporters and did not rule out a return to the death penalty.
Macron, a pro-European centrist, became president in 2017 after easily beating Le Pen when voters rallied behind him to keep the far-right out of power. This time, he is facing a much tougher challenge.
He is slightly ahead in polls, but prior to Sunday’s first round Le Pen successfully tapped into anger over the cost of living and a perception that Macron is disconnected from everyday hardships, and she has continued to press on those points.
Criticised for not properly campaigning in the run-up to the first round, Macron has changed tack ahead of the April 24 run-off. He has headed to areas where people voted against him to engage and adopted a more aggressive rhetoric towards his rival.
He has categorised Le Pen’s manifesto as full of lies and false promises that conceal far-right agenda that ultimately would lead to France’s exit from the European Union.
On Tuesday, at a news conference outlining her vision of democracy under her presidency, Le Pen was quizzed why a team of journalists from a popular evening programme had been refused accreditation.
She brushed it off saying that the show was entertainment rather than journalism and that she reserved the right – now as a candidate, and later as president if elected – to choose who can come to her news conferences.
“Despite all the efforts, the true face of the far-right is coming back. It is a face that doesn’t respect freedoms, the constitutional framework, press independence, and fundamental freedoms, rights … which are at the heart of our values, such as the abolition of the death penalty”, Macron told France 2 television. He added it was the start of an “authoritarian drift”.
Le Pen, who has made a concerted push to detoxify her party’s image with a less inflammatory brand of eurosceptic, anti-immigration populist politics, retorted that Macron was showing his “weakness” and was in no position to give lessons on how to handle the press.
Macron has had a bumpy relationship with the media during his presidency and last week was criticised for refusing to take part in several prime time shows ahead of the first round.
“He’d be better off going into the substance of my project. It is known, transparent. We can discuss it and argue over our disagreements,” Le Pen told reporters during a campaign stop outside of Paris.