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Mélenchon slams rival candidates in front of thousands at Lille rally

Hard-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon told thousands of supporters at a rally in the northern French city of Lille on Wednesday that a Macron, Le Pen or Fillon victory would be a “catastrophe”.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon at a rally in Lille on April 12, 2017.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon at a rally in Lille on April 12, 2017. Reuters/Pascal Rossignol
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“If you elect one of these three candidates, you will spit blood,” Mélenchon said. “I want to warn you all of the catastrophe they are in the process of organising.”

Campaign organisers have estimated that some 25,000 people attended Wednesday’s rally in Lille, where the firebrand candidate launched verbal attacks against centrist Emmanuel Macron, far-right Marine Le Pen and conservative François Fillon.

The rally came as Mélenchon was announced to have climbed to third in the opinion polls, neck and neck with Fillon.

Addressing the large crowd, the Defiant France candidate said he “disagreed” with the “principles” of his three rival candidates: “Accumulate more, take advantage, and keep quiet!”

Macron targeted

Mélenchon's harshest words were for Macron, who had attacked his "communist" programme at a rally in Besançon on Tuesday. The 39-year-old centrist candidate had also aimed a few jabs at Mélenchon’s 65 years of age, saying that Mélenchon “was a Socialist senator when I was still in secondary school”.

The hard left candidate said he was “disappointed” and “displeased” by Macron’s comments, reminding the crowd that “in 2008, both of us were members of the Socialist party”. But it’s what they decided to do after leaving the party, he said, that distinguishes them. “At 57 years old, I left the party to stay true to my values and keep fighting," he said. "At 31 years old, [Macron] left the party to work for Rothschild,” a reference to the global investment bank.

“So Mr. Macron, I’m willing to have more cordial relations with you, but you’re going to have to be more polite,” he said.

Mélenchon went on to denounce his rival’s “spectacular shift towards the right,” claiming that Macron had “re-oriented his campaign so as to pick up Fillon voters”.

Speaking of his climb from fifth to third place in the opinion polls, Mélenchon said that his next goal, “after having caught up with Fillon” in third, was to tie with Macron.

The Defiant France candidate also went over his programme, which calls for shutting down all of France’s nuclear power plants in favour of renewable energy, renegotiating European treaties, tightening labour regulations and lowering the retirement age, among others.

Recent opinion polls have projected that Mélenchon will receive some 18 percent of the vote in the first round of voting on 23 April, with Fillon polling just one point above him at 19 percent. Mélenchon has jumped some eight points over the last few weeks.

Macron and Le Pen are still leading the opinion polls neck and neck, with both projected to get roughly 23 percent of the vote.
 

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