CBC IN FRANCE

Neither Le Pen nor Macron: Many French voters refuse to accept their options
for president

Two remaining candidates fight for same political terrain as May 7 vote
approaches

By Nahlah Ayed, CBC News Posted: May 01, 2017 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: May 01,
2017 4:00 PM ET

A man kicks back a tear gas canister at police in Paris on April 27, 2017
during a demonstration against the results of the first round of the
presidential election.

A man kicks back a tear gas canister at police in Paris on April 27, 2017
during a demonstration against the results of the first round of the
presidential election. (Lionel Bonaventure/Getty Images)

Protesters clash with police at Paris May Day events

Protesters clash with police at Paris May Day events 0:59

About The Author

Photo of Nahlah Ayed

Nahlah Ayed

Foreign Correspondent

Nahlah Ayed is a CBC foreign correspondent based in London. A veteran of

foreign reportage, she's covered major world events: the refugee crisis across
Europe, the dying days of Iran under international sanctions, and the conflict
in Ukraine. Ayed also spent nearly a decade working in and covering conflicts
across the Middle East. Prior to joining CBC News, Ayed was a parliamentary
reporter for The Canadian Press.
More by this author

Video by Nahlah Ayed

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"Il est un gigolo."

With that, the waitress dismissed France's front-runner for president,

Emmanuel Macron, as swiftly as she carried away the empty dishes.

Two weeks later, after the results of the first round of voting on April 23
pit centrist Macron head-to-head with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, the
waitress, who gave her name as Lucie, was forced to reconsider.

"It's not much of a choice," she said standing among the empty tables of the
central Paris restaurant where she works. She wavered repeatedly between
putting Macron ahead of Le Pen and not choosing at all.

The historic first round of voting redrew France's political map and lines are
necessarily shifting again. French citizens who may be following the old
advice of voting with their hearts in the first round, then with their heads
in the second, are now in the fraught process of a quick rethink before the
May 7 vote that will determine their country's next leader.

FRANCE-ELECTION/

Emmanuel Macron, left, and Marine Le Pen will go head-to-head in the second
round of France's presidential election on May 7. Many voters aren't thrilled
with their options. (Christian Hartmann/Reuters)

Macron and Le Pen are keen to seize on the shifting political landscape and
have appealed directly to voters who, just a week ago, wouldn't have
considered voting for them.

And while millions will ultimately mark a ballot in favour of one of the two
remaining candidates, others find both so unpalatable they have decided to opt
for neither.

Their choice is "ni, ni" neither, nor one of several popular new slogans
and hashtags meant to dismiss the Macron-Le Pen contest as unacceptable and
encourage people not to vote.

Ni Ni graffiti

'Ni Macron, Ni Le Pen' has become a rallying cry for those frustrated by the
results of the first round of France's election. (Michelle Gagnon/CBC)

It's a growing sentiment that seemed to spread quickly among supporters of

candidates who didn't make it to the second round. But it was high school
students who first took it to the streets last week.

Many who participated in a protest in Paris on Thursday are too young to vote,
but they resent the choice that will be made for them.

On their march from Place de la Rpublique, they carried posters and painted
graffiti on bank storefronts and billboards with the words "Ni banquier, ni
faschos," "Ni fascisme, ni libralisme" and "Ni patrie, ni patron." All are
expressions of their distaste for two wildly contrasting yet equally
unacceptable options: Le Pen's nationalism and patriotism, and Macron's links
to the financial world and the establishment.

With the help of older, masked protesters, the demonstrations quickly

descended into clashes with police and tear gas.
AFP_NW6WM

People throw glass bottles at police in Paris on April 27, 2017 during a
demonstration against the results of the first round of the presidential
election. (Lionel Bonaventure/Getty Images)

But the wider call for abstentions many under the hashtag #SansMoiLe7Mai
(without me on May 7) could play a significant role in reshaping a contest
that, at the moment, appears to still be going Macron's way.

The two leaders offer starkly different outlooks. Le Pen is an anti-European

Union, pro-Russia nationalist who wants to restrict immigration. Macron's
centrist En Marche! movement was created just over a year ago and borrows from
both the left and the right. He's pro-EU, wary of Russia and strikes a more
inclusive tone when discussing France's minority communities.

And yet, as the only candidates still standing, they are now fighting for some
of the same political terrain.

France Election

Macron, centre, talks to workers at the Whirlpool home appliance factory in

Amiens on Wednesday after his rival, Marine Le Pen, upstaged him with an
earlier surprise campaign stop at the plant. (Thibault Camus/Associated Press)

Witness their appearances on Wednesday in Amiens, Macron's hometown and the

home of a Whirlpool factory that's about to shut down and move to Poland,
killing 286 jobs.

Macron's visit was partly overshadowed by an earlier surprise drop-in by Le

Pen a whirlwind affair of selfies and smiles that lasted only minutes.
Macron then spent much longer debating with the company's striking employees
all broadcast live on Facebook.

France Election
Le Pen is greeted by workers outside the whirlpool home appliance factory in
Amiens. While Macron was meeting with union leaders elsewhere, Le Pen popped
up outside the factory itself and declared herself the candidate of France's
workers. (Associated Press)

The duel of images was a good example of the hand-to-hand combat the two
candidates must fight in order to persuade skeptics.

The real political battleground might be in far-left territory, where the

preferred candidate was Jean-Luc Mlenchon, who came in fourth in the first
round of voting.

His is also the movement where support for abstaining appears to be most
popular, doubling in the past week, according to some polls.

Macron, Le Pen qualify for 2nd round of France's presidential election

ANALYSIS| French voters choose change but what type?

Mlenchon even appears to encourage it. Unlike other leaders, he's given
ambiguous voting instructions to the seven million people who cast a ballot
for him.

He has urged them to refrain from voting for Le Pen. But rather than clearly
endorse Macron, Mlenchon has criticized him.

"We can't really call this a choice," he said, echoing his ni, ni followers.
But unlike the abstainers, he said he intends to vote, and seemed to hint that
vote would go to Macron.

"You don't need me to tell you who to vote for. I'm not a guru, not a guide."

Impact of abstentions
Le Pen, who stepped away from her post as National Front leader Monday night
to try to appeal to more voters, spoke directly to Mlenchon supporters in a
video message Friday, calling their leader "respectable."

"It's not possible to leave the leadership of France to Emmanuel Macron. The
danger is too great," she said.

Because her program is so far-right, Le Pen is unlikely to win many of them

over. The question is whether abstentions among Mlenchon supporters could
hurt front-runner Macron.

"I do not think so," said Jean-Yves Camus, author of Far Right Politics in
Europe. He says French voters will ultimately buy Macron's line that working
to change what they dislike about the European Union and globalization, for
example, will be more appealing than everything that comes with a Le Pen
presidency.

"I think and I hope that most of my fellow countrymen will be realistic as
well," he said.

'To be silent is to vote Le Pen'

Not everyone is so optimistic.

Many here warn that abstentions could provide Le Pen a path to the presidency.

In a letter to the protesting students published in current affairs magazine

L'Obs, French actor Philippe Torreton warned of the perils of staying home.

"To be silent is to vote Le Pen," he said. "Calling for abstention is a vote

for Le Pen.
"There is only one way to block the far-right, nationalism, xenophobia,
racism, anti-Semitism, revisionism, populism: that's to call for a vote for
Emmanuel Macron in the second round."

It will likely take much more than letters to persuade them.