PARIS: French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen hopped on to a fishing boat at dawn on Thursday as she pursued a guerrilla-style campaign that has upstaged frontrunner Emmanuel Macron, reports AFP.
It was still dark when Le Pen boarded the trawler at the small port of Grau-du-Roi on the south coast for a four-hour trip out to sea, seeking to portray herself as the protector of small businesses against the man she says embodies “unbridled globalisation”.
Le Pen stole a march on 39-year-old Macron on Wednesday by making an unannounced visit to a Whirlpool factory in northern France where the US appliances giant is threatening to partially outsource production to Poland.
Her brief visit to pose for selfies with workers forced Macron, who was visiting the town where the factory is based, to hastily change his plans and also go to the site.
The besuited Macron spent more than an hour debating with workers amid chaotic scenes as dozens of TV camera teams crowded around him. Le Pen, 48, was back on the attack on Thursday saying her rival, a former banker, supported “an ultra-liberal economy” and “total deregulation”.
Macron hit back in a Twitter message that reminded voters of the National Front (FN) candidate's pledge to pull out of the eurozone and hold a referendum on France's membership of the European Union. “Madame Le Pen has gone fishing. Have a good trip.
Withdrawing from Europe as she proposes would mean the end of the French fishing industry.
Think about that,” he wrote.
The latest poll suggests Macron will defeat Le Pen by a margin of 21 points in the runoff on May 7, and figures from France's traditional left and right — both absent from the second round — have backed him too.
