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Smiling with Marine; heckling Macron
Amiens

Le Pen humiliates Macron during the battle of Amiens

During a visit by French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron to striking factory workers in his hometown of Amiens, chaos ensued after workers showed their hostility towards him.

Published: April 28, 2017, 10:27 am

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    According to Bloomberg, the confrontation at the factory in northern France, was because of “an ambush” by supporters of his nationalist rival.

    On Wednesday Macron was greeted with jeers, boos, while protesters chanted in favour of Marine Le Pen. Macron tried to blame Le Pen for his unpopularity after his humiliation.

    The 39-year-old Macron spent over an hour trying to talk to workers and making himself heard above the heckles and angry whistles, while the media were asked to wait outside as the melee looked like getting out of control. He had little success.

    Patrice Sinoquet from the CFDT union in the town, who met with Macron earlier in the day, said 90 percent of his members will be voting for Le Pen. “Macron is the worst of free-market politics,” said Clement Pons, a 32-year-old unemployed worker at the anti-Macron rally. “He’s a globalist who will kill the working class. He makes me want to throw up. I don’t understand his ideas.”

    The powerful French union, which has called on its members to vote against Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential election, has been confronted by one of its trade union representatives, and he is not alone judging from the reception Macron received in Amiens.

    On Monday, Macron drew criticism for what many saw as a triumphalist speech and then a grand celebratory dinner at an expensive Paris bistro on Sunday. Socialist Party boss Jean-Christophe Cambadelis told French radio: “He was smug. He wrongly thought that it was a done deal.”

    On April 26th, during an interview with France Info, Sinoquet, trade union representative of the CFDT, announced he had voted for Marine Le Pen during the first round of the presidential election.

    Referring to the visit of the two candidates on the same day at the Whirlpool factory in Amiens, the trade unionist launched: “Macron, it is not my cup of tea… I find him a little petty. If he comes begging for votes, he can look elsewhere. For me it’s too late.”

    “I will not change my mind. I will always vote National Front. I am ready to withdraw and resign if they want, “said Sinoquet, before continuing:” We are not there to arbitrate the elections! The choice of my vote is my choice and it will not be the CFDT that will make me change my mind. Here everyone does not vote the same, we are not sheep, we are not there to be instructed to vote the same because we represent a union.”

    Chantal Flahaut, a 57-year-old assembly line worker at the Whirlpool rally, told the New York Times she had been striking on and off all week and she was so sickened by the situation in France that she did not even register to vote on Sunday. She wore a T-shirt saying: “Whirlpool Manufactures Unemployment”.

    “I am so disgusted,” she said. “Macron is in favor of big companies like ours. Stop giving aid to multinational billionaires and give us our money.”

    The war of words continued on Twitter, where Macron said that Le Pen had spent “10 minutes with her supporters in a car park in front of the cameras” whereas he had spent “an hour and a half with union representatives and no media”. But Macron did not dare to explain the hostile reception that had awaited him.

    Macron arranged to meet the plant workers’ union representatives, without actually visiting the facility. He quickly arrived there after Le Pen turned up unannounced outside the plant, warmly welcomed by workers.

    Marine was met with applause and posted a flurry of images on social media of herself, surrounded by factory workers, all smiling and laughing. “In Amiens where I went to meet and support the workers at Whirlpool. With me, their factory won’t close!” she tweeted.

    “Everyone knows what side Emmanuel Macron is on – he is on the side of the corporations,” Le Pen said. “I am on the workers’ side, here in the car park, not in restaurants in Amiens.” The factory operated by Whirlpool, a US multinational company, has threatened 295 jobs by outsourcing to Poland.

    Benjamin Griveaux, an aide on the Macron campaign, said Le Pen was focusing on “political stunts” rather than trying to address voters’ problems, but the factory workers were saying the exact opposite.

    It was clear in Amiens that Macron, who has no party, would face the same reception at a rally later in nearby Arras, a city in the northern rustbelt where Le Pen topped the first round of voting. Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler, speaking from Arras, said Le Pen had totally upstaged the ex-banker.

    Leftist filmmaker François Ruffin criticised Macron for not having visited the factory previously during the campaign and for “having a lack of solidarity with workers”.

    Criticizing Le Pen directly, Macron said “stopping globalisation and closing borders” is no solution. He has also said that France should accept that terror attacks are here to stay.

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