PARIS
\nFrench far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who has narrowed the gap with Emmanuel Macron in opinion polls ahead of Sunday\u2019s presidential election enough to rattle financial markets, sought on Tuesday to further detoxify her image.
\nMacron, meanwhile, went on a walkabout in a small town in northwestern France, shaking hands, hugging people and beaming to crowds shouting \u201cMacron President!\u201d, as he seeks to revive a lacklustre campaign which he started much later than his rival.
\nLe Pen, whom Macron easily beat with two-thirds of the vote five years ago, has got so close that who will win in a likely run-off on April 24 is now within the margin of error, one opinion poll showed on Monday.
\nSince her resounding 2017 defeat, Le Pen has patiently worked on softening her image, striving to appear as a potential leader rather than a radical anti-system opponent.
\nPolls show this has worked on a growing number of voters, with a survey saying the once vilified candidate has become the second most-liked politician in the country, something long thought impossible in France.
\n\u201cI always try to have the most reasonable view possible, and one that defends the interest of France,\u201d Le Pen said in an interview with France Inter radio, spelling out her views on topics ranging from foreign policy to climate change.
\nBut France\u2019s benchmark CAC-40 index abruptly lost ground on Tuesday, with traders citing election nerves, while the spread between French and German 10-year government bonds stood at its widest in two years.
\n\u201cMarkets woke up on Le Pen,\u201d said Jerome Legras, head of research at Axiom Alternative Investments.
\nLe Pen has continued to improve on her pre-first round polling, at 23pc vs Macron\u2019s 27pc, a poll by OpinionWay and Ka Partners for the Les Echos daily and Radio Classique showed.
\nThe poll also showed 59pc of those surveyed expected Macron to win a second mandate \u2014 which opinion polls all still point to as the most likely scenario.
\nAfter people in Macron\u2019s own camp worried over his late campaign start and with Le Pen\u2019s ratings boosted by months of canvassing small constituencies, the president spent hours talking with voters in the Brittany town of Spezet\u2019s main square, taking selfies amid cheers and a handful of boos.
\n\u201cYou can count on me … on my determination. I will, in the coming days and weeks seek out, one by one, the confidence of our compatriots, to (have the mandate to continue) to act in the years to come for our country, for Europe,\u201d he said.
\nMacron focused a half-hour speech, squeezed between two walkabouts, on how crucial Europe was for France \u2014 and criticised, without naming her, Le Pen\u2019s lingering euroscepticsm, stressing his own experience as a statesman.
\n\u201cProjects that turn their backs on Europe are harmful and deadly … for our future,\u201d he said, concluding with a resounding: \u201cVive la France, et vive l\u2019Europe!\u201d While she has ditched plans to leave the euro or the EU, which had put off many voters from backing her in past elections, Le Pen has kept a eurosceptic stance, with plans to hollow out the EU by giving preeminence to French law, and replace the bloc with a \u201cEuropean Alliance of Nations\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who has narrowed the gap with Emmanuel Macron in opinion polls ahead of Sunday\u2019s presidential election enough to rattle financial markets, sought on Tuesday to further detoxify her image. Macron, meanwhile, went on a walkabout in a small town in northwestern France, shaking hands, hugging people and beaming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-253413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n