: Marine Le Pen Is Finding Support in Rural France by Following Donald Trump’s Playbook #WorldNEWS The door of the small white house opens slightly at the sound of knocking, and then is flung wide

Marine Le Pen Is Finding Support in Rural France by Following Donald Trump’s Playbook #WorldNEWS
The door of the small white house opens slightly at the sound of knocking, and then is flung wide open. Jean-Luc Henault, a 65-year-old pensioner smiles broadly at the election campaigner on his doorstep, who is clutching leaflets for Frances far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen. “I am definitely voting for Marine,” he says, speaking on April 13—just a few days after Le Pen and centrist President Emmanuel Macron made it to the second round of the presidential elections. Macron promised to change France, but that has not happened in five years.
In Beaucamps-le-Vieux, a one-time industrial hub three hours north of Paris, Henault is not alone in his disappointment with Macron. Le Pen, a hardline anti-immigrant nationalist, swept the first-round of elections on April 10 in this tiny village, where just 786 people voted. Le Pen won twice as many votes as Macron, and four times as many as Henault’s once-favored politician, far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Like many others, Henault has shifted his loyalties from far-left to far-right, bypassing the traditional socialists and republicans.
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On April 24, when Macron and Le Pen compete in a run-off vote to be French president for the next five years, this tiny community will not make much of a dent in a country of 67 million people. Yet even so, it is the deep challenges in communities much like this one—declining public services, and limited job prospects—that could help determine whose vision of France finally prevails.
Polls suggest Macron will win another five years in the Elysée Palace in Sunday’s race, with about an eight-point lead over Le Pen. But the gap between the two has been razor-thin at times over the past few weeks. And its much smaller than the 32-point margin Macron had over Le Pen in 2017, underscoring the exceedingly high stakes in this election not only for France, but for Europe and the U. S. too.
After becoming the youngest-ever French president five years ago, Macron, 44, a former investment banker, has pushed for a more forceful E. U. globally, with a bigger military power; he even ends his election rallies with the E. U. anthem, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy. ” He has streamlined France’s labyrinthine labor laws, making it much easier to hire and fire staff, and to launch innovative businesses, in what he deems the “start-up nation. ” He also says he intends to raise the public-pension age from 62, perhaps to 65.
Read More: Emmanuel Macron Is on Track to Win Re-Election. What Comes After Could Be Tougher
Le Pen, 53, is running on a very different platform, promising to drastically cut sales tax on oil, gas, and electricity, scrap income tax for many young French workers, and raise the minimum wage by 10%.