Macron’s campaign gets knocked off course by the Corsican riots
24 days to go before the first round of voting in the French election and the Macron campaign is in danger of being blown off course by rioting in Corsica and his pledge in response to look at autonomy for the island after he is reelected.
This has caused his opponents to go on the offensive against him as the Times reports:
Macron’s three main rightwing opponents accused him of capitulation and breaching the ancient French principle of the unitary state. Marine Le Pen, the hard nationalist who is running in second place but far behind the president in polling, said that Macron was sending a “disastrous message” by caving in to rioters who support the murderer of a state prefect.
This all has echoes of the Algerian crisis that saw De Gaule being returned to the presidency in 1968.
France, of course, has had a very different approach to colonisation than the UK with the colonies being more integrated into the country.
So far the latest developments have had almost no impact on the betting but there is little doubt that his opponents are going to try to get the maximum political advantage from his handling of the Corsican situation.