France's former president Sarkozy endorses Macron, touting 'experience'

Le Pen and Macron will face off in the second round of France’s presidential election on April 24, with polls pointing to a much tighter race than the lopsided contest that saw Macron easily prevail in 2017.

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy gave Macron his high-profile endorsement on Tuesday in announcing he would be voting for the incumbent.

“I will vote for Emmanuel Macron because I believe he has the necessary experience faced with a grave international crisis,” Sarkozy posted on his Facebook page. 

“[Macron’s] economic project puts the value of work as the top priority and his commitment to Europe is clear and unambiguous,” he added. “We must abandon our partisan habits (...). Fidelity to right-wing republican values and our governing culture must lead us to answer Emmanuel Macron's call for unity.”

The statement came just days after the candidate from Sarkozy's own conservative Les Républicains party – whom he had refused to support publicly – suffered a humiliating defeat in the first round of the election. Valérie Pecresse obtained just 4.8 percent in the vote on Sunday, a staggering 15 points short of the party’s score five years ago under scandal-plagued candidate François Fillon. 

Pécresse’s drubbing puts Les Républicains in dire financial straits because the party failed to reach the 5 percent threshold, above which election campaign spending is reimbursed by the state. Pécresse issued an urgent plea for donations on Monday to ensure her party's survival, saying she had personally racked up campaign debts of €5 million ($5.5 million).

Le Pen has received the backing of far-right rivals Éric Zemmour and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan heading into the April 24 run-off, but most other first-round candidates have rallied behind Macron.

No 'secret agenda' to leave EU

Le Pen, who is making her third run for the presidency, has ditched past plans to haul France out of the EU, its free-movement Schengen zone and the euro single currency. However, she remains deeply eurosceptic.

“I don't have a secret agenda,” Le Pen told France Inter radio on Tuesday, denying plans to take the country out of the EU but vowing to reform the 27-member bloc.

“I think a large majority of French people no longer want the European Union as it exists today, which is a European Union that functions in an absolutely undemocratic way, which advances by threat, by blackmail and that implements policies that are against the interests of the people,” she said.

Le Pen has pledged to renegotiate the Schengen agreement and increase the number of customs agents, re-introducing checks on goods entering the country from other EU states.

Such a move would protect French jobs and fight against “fraud”, the far-right leader has argued, but analysts say it raises questions over friction-free trade within the EU's single market.

Le Pen’s 2017 pledge to quit the euro currency is widely believed to have alienated many mainstream voters. This time she has sought to moderate her pitch, saying she envisages the EU as an alliance of sovereign member states.

Asked if she would leave the EU if all her attempts to reform the bloc fail, Le Pen replied: “Not at all.”

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AFP)