Home » today » World » – Rather take the risk – VG

– Rather take the risk – VG

by

STANDING UP: Mehdi is sure Macron will win on Sunday, but wants him to make a bad choice. Mounia will not take the risk that Jade (3) will have to live in a France where the president’s name is Le Pen. Photo: HELGE MIKALSEN / VG

CRÉTEIL, PARIS REGION (VG) Mehdi would rather risk Le Pen becoming president than vote for Emmanuel Macron on Sunday. It can cost him dearly at home.

Published:

–

On Sunday night, it will be clear who will win the presidential election in France.

Never before has the National Assembly been closer to winning than this year, according to opinion polls.

Although incumbent President Macron is leading, French election analysts warn that nothing has been decided and that France could risk having its own Donald Trump moment.

Mehdi Gharbi is a man on the left.

As a family man with an immigrant background and Muslim faith, the 41-year-old has no desire to see Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Assembly (formerly the National Front), become France’s next president.

Nevertheless, he has decided: When he gets the choice on Sunday between voting for Le Pen and incumbent President Emmanuel Macron, he will not vote.

– I think there are an enormous number of people in my situation who will do the same as me, Mehdi says to VG.

Many of those who cheer on Macron also fear this.

–
LETS THE CARDS ON THE TABLE: This year’s presidential election is life’s very first for Jade (3). Mum Mounia (41) and dad Mehdi (41) usually vote the same, but not this year. Photo: HELGE MIKALSEN / VG

Both Mehdi and his wife Mounia voted for the far left’s strong man, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, during the first round of elections on 10 April.

The party leader for Indomitable France, who ended up with a little below 22 percent of the votes, managed almost what would be impossible for the fragmented left: to knock Marine Le Pen to the presidential election final (Le Pen got 23.15 percent. Macron 27.85).

But third place is nowhere to be found in the French presidential election, and Mélenchon was eliminated.

Disappointed voters on the left will – together with the residents – play a crucial role on Sunday.

What they end up doing on election day is uncertain. Some fear they will be the tongue in cheek that tilts Marine Le Pen into the presidential palace.

1 / 2

–
–

–

–

GA MARCH JORDER: – Not a single vote must go to Marine Le Pen, said Jean-Luc Mélenchon (70) to his disappointed voters after the first round of elections. However, he failed to ask them to vote for Macron, as a number of other party leaders did.Photo: Michel Spingler / AP
–

– Against Marine, not on Macron

At the home of Mehdi and Mounia in Créteil, a working-class suburb southeast of Paris, the rift is expressed across the kitchen table.

– He does not want to vote, but I can not help it, says Mounia (41) and looks at her husband.

On Sunday, Mounia will cast a vote for Macron in the ballot box.

“She is ready to block Le Pen’s path, but I do not want to do that anymore,” said Mehdi.

– If I vote for Macron, I accept his strategy. And I can not do that. Then I rather take the risk.

The first round of elections is known as the one that votes with the heart in France. In the second round, you vote tactically, and choose the candidate you dislike the least.

–
CROSSING THE FINGERS: Mounia hopes that those who vote blank or stay at home, like her husband, will not give Marine Le Pen the ticket to the Elysée Palace. Here she is standing outside the family home in Créteil with her son Tayeb (15). Photo: HELGE MIKALSEN / VG

– I do not vote for, I vote against. I am voting against Marine, not Macron, says Mounia.

This is Macron’s “strategy”, Mehdi believes: to collect votes from those who really wanted another president, but who fear that the far right will come to power.

The principle is simple enough: Stick to your nose and vote for the candidate who does not represents the outer right.

The concept is known as the “Republican Front” and originated the year Mehdi and Mounia got together, in 2002. That same year, the father of Marine Le Pen, Jean-Marie, sent the National Front to the presidential election for the first time.

1 / 2

–
–

–

–

STOLE THE VICTORY – FIRST: The turnout for the presidential election in 2002 was at a historic low. The high proportion of residents was an advantage for Jean-Marie Le Pen of the far right, who mobilized enough voters to qualify for the second and final round of elections.Photo: FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP
–

– The extreme has become normal

Mehdi remembers well the nervous atmosphere in Paris the next day 20 years ago when people realized that the far right could gain power for the first time in post-war French times.

– People could not believe it. Strangers talked together on the metro, it never happens in Paris, he says.

The 2002 earthquake election ended in a devastating loss for Jean-Marie Le Pen. Well helped by left-wing voters, right-wing candidate Jacques Chirac received 82 percent of the vote in the second round.

The process was repeated successfully in 2017, when Macron won smoothly over Marine Le Pen (66.1 percent against 33.9 percent).

1 / 3

–
–
–

–

–

TOTAL IN EXCITEMENT: Mounia, Maïssa (14), Mehdi, Jade (3) and Tayeb (15), know that France is facing an important road choice on Sunday. The Créteil family professes Islam and fears Le Pen will make the situation difficult for Muslims. – I think she will try to erase the religion as much as possible from the public space, Mehdi says.Photo: HELGE MIKALSEN / VG
–

The question is whether all good things are three.

Mehdi, who participated in the “Republican Front” in both 2002 and 2017, refuses to do so this year.

– I think it’s a shame, says Mounia about her husband’s choice.

– That means he gives her a chance. It is not he who betrays me, but us. Marine Le Pen, she is who she is and she does not hide it.

–
NO REPUBLICAN HOME FRONT: Mehdi believes Macron has helped polarize the country to position itself as the only legitimate alternative to the far right. – He does like his predecessors and strengthens the far right to be re-elected, Mehdi says. Mounia says it would have been bad without Macron as well. Photo: HELGE MIKALSEN / VG

– What do you do if he does not vote and Le Pen wins?

– It would hurt me, says Mounia.

– I can not believe that she wins, but if she does and he did not vote …

– Are you completely sure? It’s a big risk you take? asks VG Mehdi.

– I want Macron to win, but I want him to make a bad choice, says Mehdi.

– So that people say: Ok, you are president, but it was on the hair.

The 41-year-old is confident that Macron will walk away with the victory on Sunday – despite the fact that the opinion polls show a close race. If Macron wins by a small margin, he will have to listen more to the people over the next five years, Mehdi believes.

– But it does not change anything, he is elected anyway, Mounia says.

– But that’s my message. That’s my way of protesting, Mehdi replies.

On Sunday afternoon, Mehdi sends a text message to VG:

– Mounia has voted for Macron and I joined her in the polling station, but I did not vote. I hesitated until the last second, but in the end I would stand by what I had said. I want Macron to make a bad choice.

–

Related posts:

Pakistan bans TikTok because of its "immoral content"
A tumor? Roberto Arzú shares on social networks the details of the illness he suffers from – Publin...
Yves Montand on the scene - iVysílání
Navalny's Death: Experts Predict He Will Become a Martyr for Russian Opposition

Vaccine against Malaria, Sócrates Herrera, Myriam Arévalo, Malaria: Colombian vaccine against Malaria showed an effectiveness of 60% | Health

Three wins against Wolfsburg: Munich reaches the DEL final

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.