Emmanuel Macron on Saturday chose the sweltering melting pot of Marseille to paint himself Green as he gunned for the key Left-wing and youth vote in a bid to clinch a second term next Sunday, warning of the danger of “incompetent climate sceptic” rival Marine Le Pen.
The centrist incumbent’s biggest rally of the second round so far, held at the Pharo gardens overlooking Marseille’s old port, coincided with demonstrations in the Mediterranean port city and around the country “against the far-Right”.
But many Leftists in Marseille, the constituency of third-placed Jean-Luc Mélenchon, made it clear they were still unsure if they would vote for either candidate, deeming it a choice between “the plague and cholera”.
In 27 degrees Celsius temperatures that befitted a speech on global warming, the 44-year-old told a crowd of several thousand that green issues would shape all his policies if re-elected and be overseen by a “prime minister directly in charge of environmental planning”.
The pledge, which was not in his manifesto, was a major concession to supporters of Mr Mélenchon, the Leftist who had called for a €200 billion spending spree on tackling climate change.
Both presidential candidates have promised to ramp up France’s nuclear industry but have starkly contrasting views on renewable energy. Ms Le Pen has pledged to tear down wind farms while Mr Macron wants to speed up wind and solar power.
“The far-Right is a climate sceptic project,” warned Mr Macron as polls suggested his lead over his nationalist rival is slightly widening. An Ipsos-Sopra-Steria survey saw him winning next Sunday with 55.5 per cent of the vote compared to Ms Le Pen’s 44.5 per cent.
He also singled out multicultural Marseille, France’s second most populous city and its oldest, as a symbol of his vision of Gallic “openness” against “the great division” that he said lay in store if Ms Le Pen clinched power.
