France's presidential runoff: Emmanuel Macron faces Marine Le Pen

France's presidential runoff: Emmanuel Macron faces Marine¹ Le Pen

Transcript²

President Emmanuel Macron will face a runoff against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, following Sunday's first round of balloting³.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

French President Emmanuel Macron is heading into a runoff election with far-right rival Marine Le Pen. The two candidates beat out 10 others in a first round of voting yesterday. And this sets up a rematch for Macron and Le Pen, who faced each other in a presidential runoff five years ago. So what's changed? We go now to NPR's Eleanor Beardsley in Paris. Hi, Eleanor.

ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE⁴: Hi, Leila.

FADEL: So what are the final vote totals this morning? And what about those campaigns led to these results?

BEARDSLEY: Right. Well, Macron has 27 1/2 percent of the vote and Marine Le Pen 23 1/2. So it's a four-point spread. It's not a lot. Macron basically didn't run a campaign. He announced that he was, you know, running again very late. And then he was occupied with the war in Ukraine. He even refused to debate ahead of the first round. To the opposite, Marine Le Pen had a very long, solid campaign, and she kept it about bread-and-butter economic issues - purchasing power, the cost of living, which turned out to be the No. 1 concerns of the French. Here's her headquarters, where I was last night, her excited supporters chanting, Marine president.

UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Chanting) Marine president, Marine president, Marine president.

BEARDSLEY: So she's made her image more moderate, no more fear-mongering talk about immigration and leaving the European Union. In fact, there was another candidate this time around to her right, former TV pundit⁵ Eric Zemmour. And he talked about all that. His whole schtick was about French identity and how immigration is ruining France, and Islam is incompatible⁶ with French values. So that, too, made her look more mainstream⁷. And she had a unifying⁸ message for the French.

FADEL: Macron and Le Pen have run against each other before. What's different this time?

BEARDSLEY: Well, quite frankly⁹, she has a better chance of winning, say analysts¹⁰. You know, first of all, the general context - French voters have moved to the right overall, and she's enlarged her base this time around. And like I said, she's a better-prepared candidate. She has a detailed¹¹ program. She's more moderate. And, you know, even as she lost voters to Zemmour early on, she did not turn nasty. She kept steady on message about economic issues, and she surged in the last weeks. And, Leila, add to this the fact that there's a deep strain of resentment¹² toward Macron amongst voters of all stripes, really, but especially amongst working-class voters. They say he's arrogant¹³. He governs alone. He's been a president of the rich and elites¹⁴. And he's tone-deaf. And they don't want to give him a second term.

FADEL: What about the voters of those other candidates? Who will they support?

BEARDSLEY: Well, that's the big question. You know, for Macron, there is no big well of voters to tap into, really, because the mainstream right party, which kind of fell apart five years ago, didn't even get 5% of the votes. And the third-place candidate very close to Le Pen is far-right (ph) leader Jean-Luc Melenchon. Believe it or not, he told his voters not to support the far right, but he didn't go so far as to endorse¹⁵ Macron. And the thing is the far left has a similar socioeconomic platform as the far right.

FADEL: Right.

BEARDSLEY: You know, they support the working class. They're against big finance and globalization that helps the elites and corporations. And so they also hate Macron, many of them, so they could vote for Le Pen.

FADEL: So what's at stake here?

BEARDSLEY: Leila, quite a lot. These are two vastly different candidates representing, you know, different voting groups. And they have two completely different visions for the country. If France has a President Le Pen, it's going to be a different country on the world stage. You know, basically, a populist would govern a major European nation. France is, you know, a member of the U.N. Security Council. It has nuclear weapons. It's part of NATO. France would turn inward. She even talked about having border controls with Germany. You know, and we wouldn't be such a close ally with France anymore. She'd renew ties maybe with Russia. I spoke¹⁶ with Martin Quencez. He's head of the Paris office for the German Marshall Fund. And here's what he says about France's relationship with Russia.

MARTIN QUENCEZ: Despite the war, Marine Le Pen is still advocating for an alliance with Russia and still considers that it will be possible for her as president to consider Vladimir Putin as an ally.

BEARDSLEY: You know, she sort of avoided the war in Ukraine as much as she can. But in these last two intense weeks of campaigning, Macron will make her talk about it. They'll have a debate, and it'll be very intense. Voters will go back to the polls on April 24 to choose between the two.

FADEL: NPR's Eleanor Beardsley in Paris. Thank you for your reporting.

BEARDSLEY: Thank you, Leila.

1 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 balloting   

v.（使）投票表决( ballot的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Clark took a commanding leading in the early balloting. 在最初投票时，克拉克遥遥领先。 来自辞典例句
• The balloting had stagnated, he couldn't win. 投票工作陷于停顿，他不能得胜。 来自辞典例句

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 pundit   

n.博学之人；权威

参考例句：

• Even the outstanding excellent graduate will learn constantly if he likes to be a pundit.即使最优秀的结业生，要想成为一个博学的人也要不断地研究。
• He is a well known political pundit.他是一个著名的政治专家。

6 incompatible   

adj.不相容的，不协调的，不相配的

参考例句：

• His plan is incompatible with my intent.他的计划与我的意图不相符。
• Speed and safety are not necessarily incompatible.速度和安全未必不相容。

7 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

8 unifying   

使联合( unify的现在分词 )； 使相同； 使一致； 统一

参考例句：

• In addition, there were certain religious bonds of a unifying kind. 此外，他们还有某种具有一种统一性质的宗教上的结合。
• There is a unifying theme, and that is the theme of information flow within biological systems. 我们可以用一个总的命题，把生物学系统内的信息流来作为这一研究主题。

9 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

10 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

11 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

12 resentment   

n.怨愤，忿恨

参考例句：

• All her feelings of resentment just came pouring out.她一股脑儿倾吐出所有的怨恨。
• She cherished a deep resentment under the rose towards her employer.她暗中对她的雇主怀恨在心。

13 arrogant   

adj.傲慢的，自大的

参考例句：

• You've got to get rid of your arrogant ways.你这骄傲劲儿得好好改改。
• People are waking up that he is arrogant.人们开始认识到他很傲慢。

14 elites   

精华( elite的名词复数 )； 精锐； 上层集团； （统称）掌权人物

参考例句：

• The elites are by their nature a factor contributing to underdevelopment. 这些上层人物天生是助长欠发达的因素。
• Elites always detest gifted and nimble outsiders. 社会名流对天赋聪明、多才多艺的局外人一向嫌恶。

15 endorse   

vt.(支票、汇票等)背书，背署；批注；同意

参考例句：

• No one is foolish enough to endorse it.没有哪个人会傻得赞成它。
• I fully endorse your opinions on this subject.我完全拥护你对此课题的主张。

16 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。