Only a day before 47.5 million French citizens go to the ballots to elect the President of the 5th Republic of France between far-right candidate Marine LePen of the National Front party and front runner Emmanuel Macron of the En Marche party, both politicians are handing out promises to the electorate. One of the promisees made by Mr. Macron included supporting a debt relief for Greece on Friday hours before the ban on electoral statements went into effect. The venter-right candidate, who had the support of outgoing French President Francois Hollande, broke the unwritten taboo of addressing the “toxic” Greek issue in a pre-election campaign and states that he was “In favour of an orderly restructuring of the Greek debt, while maintaining Greece in the Eurozone”. His statement came as a surprise to many, as any form of debt restructuring is explicitly prohibited by the EU treaties.
His position on Greece is most likely just a empty promise, as he would not risk engaging in a head on collision with Berlin, which has ruled out any such prospect of a debt relief. In fact, his economic advisor, Jean Pisani-Ferry has made his positions clear in the past on the Greek issue, claiming that the Greeks were fully responsible for the problem, adding, however, that there needed to be a European solution to the matter.
On her part, Marine Lepen seems to be flip flopping on some of her harsh positions on the EU, in an effort to turn what appears to be a foregone conclusion on Sunday’s elections, as the latest poll by Paris Match showed. With Marine Lepen trailing (37%) Marcon (63%), the leader of the National Front said she would be more favourable stance on the common currency after a poll shows a vast majority of French citizens backed the Euro.
Meanwhile, the release of large batch of e-mails by whistleblower site Wikileaks of Emmanuel Macron’s party En Marche has caused an uproar, with establishment the candidate dubbing the release as an attempt by Moscow to interfere in the French elections.
