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Added on the 01/05/2017 19:49:21 - Copyright : France 24 EN
May Day 2017 will be remembered as a day of dueling demonstrations and bitter division over next Sunday's presidential runoff. While centrist Emmanuel Macron and the National Front's Marine Le Pen were both staging campaign rallies in Paris, the streets of Paris heard from some trade unions calling to vote Macron in the name of keeping out Le Pen, others wondering aloud if both candidates will be bad for the welfare state as France knows it.
It's the losers who will determine the winner in France's presidential race. There are various shades of endorsement between those saying they're ready to work with Macron, those who insist it's simply an anti-Le Pen vote... and those who see no issue in rejecting both. What are the pros and cons of abstaining? Could Macron still lose? The underreported story of the first round may be just how deep the far-right has managed to establish roots and consolidate them.
It's just over three weeks until the first round of the French presidential election. And if you think the right's in turmoil, spare a thought for the left. Former Socialist PM Manuel Valls has confirmed his endorsement of Emmanuel Macron, who's running as an independent. Does Macron's "neither left nor right" mantra ring true? Is the crisis in the Socialist Party about France... or symptomatic of a broader disenchantment with social democracy?
Voters on the left rue the French government's first loosening of the labor law in decades. François Picard's panel wonders if under the guise of the Socialist label, a quiet revolution might be afoot in the French workplace?
French citizens in Jerusalem vote in the first round of presidential elections projected to produce a run-off rematch between incumbent Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen that will be far tighter than their duel five years ago. IMAGES
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