French President Emmanuel Macron will not join any debates ahead of the first round of the upcoming presidential election, instead stating he would prefer to debate with the French people.
Macron argued no incumbent French president seeking re-election had done so in the past and he would not change that trend
“No president in office who stood for re-election has done so. I don’t see why I would do it differently,” President Macron said and added, “I prefer the debate with the French, that’s what I owe them,” broadcaster Europe1 reports.
Macron announced he would be formally seeking re-election for a second term as French president last week, publishing a letter in several French newspapers promising to deliver “a unique French and European response,” to the “challenges of the century.”
“We are experiencing upheavals of unprecedented speed: threats to our democracies, rising inequalities, climate change, demographic transition, technological transformations. Let us make no mistake: we will not respond to these challenges by choosing withdrawal or cultivating nostalgia,” Macron wrote.
“The challenge is to build the France of our children, not to rehash the France of our childhood,” he added and went on to promise investments in law enforcement and security, and touted France’s high birthrate in Europe as proof of “the strength of our social model.”
Birth rates and demographic issues have been a major feature throughout the French presidential campaign and are major pillars of the campaigns of populist Marine Le Pen and conservative pundit and writer Eric Zemmour, two of the favourites to face Macron in the second round run-off vote.
Last month, Eric Zemmour proposed a policy that would see families in rural France receive a €10,000 (£8,326/$11,255) grant from the government for every new child.
“For the rural world to be reborn, births must first be back. With my measure in favour of the birth rate, there will be more children in your communes, so we will no longer close classes! Our campaigns will come back to life!” Zemmour said.
Marine Le Pen, meanwhile, has made immigration one of the main focuses for her campaign and has promised a referendum to radically overhaul the immigration system of France, making broad changes to immigration flows, French nationality and citizenship as well as recognizing the supremacy of the French constitution.
Recent polls show Le Pen consistently in second place behind President Macron in the first round, with second-round polling showing LePen trailing slightly behind the French president.