Macron Appeals to French Safety Concerns as Campaign Looms
- French president rebuts critics who say he’s soft on crime
- Macron seeks to move beyond Covid crisis ahead of 2022 vote
Photographer: Julien de Rosa/AFP via Getty Images
President Emmanuel Macron is appealing to French concerns about law and order as he looks beyond the Covid-19 pandemic to his push for re-election.
“Those who attack police forces and elected officials won’t be let off,” Macron said in Paris on Friday in a speech to mark the 150th anniversary of France’s Third Republic. “They must be heavily punished.”
In a somber speech, which emphasized his opposition to efforts to divide French society, Macron sought to rebut attacks from the right that he’s too soft on crime as he lays out battle lines for his presidential campaign in 2022. The 42-year-old was speaking a day after his government unveiled a 100 billion-euro ($118 billion) package to boost France’s economic recovery after months of lockdown.