Rising French star Macron thrills crowds
Presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, riding high in the polls, said on Saturday he could unite a divided France at a major campaign rally that drew thousands of enthralled supporters.
Macron, a 39-year-old former investment banker, has created a buzz on the campaign trail in recent weeks and polls currently show he would reach the election runoff on May 7, where he would probably face far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
Speaking in the central city of Lyon the day before Le Pen addresses her own supporters, Macron portrayed himself as the only candidate capable of rising above the traditional left-right split in French politics to occupy the centre ground.
"I am not going to say that the left or right is meaningless, that they are the same thing. But are these divisions not a hurdle?" Macron said.
"I want to reconcile the two Frances that have been growing apart for too long," Macron said.
The speech kicked off the presidential campaign of the candidate, who resigned from President Francois Hollande's Socialist government in August.
His hopes of winning the support of centrist votes with his own En Marche ("On the Move") movement have risen since Socialists chose the radical leftwinger Benoit Hamon as their party's candidate.
Macron supporters see him as a sorely needed fresh face in a campaign overshadowed by stark populist moves made in allying states -- Britain's decision to pursue an exit from the European Union, and Donald Trump's victory in the United States.
"He is the only candidate who says that things will not be worse tomorrow than they are today and that the changes we are facing are not all doom and gloom," said one supporter, 49-year-old Guy Tremblay.
But his detractors point out that he has never held elected office and his campaign pledges are so far short on detail.
- 'Demonstration of enthusiasm' -
Macron has also benefited in the last two weeks from the woes of conservative candidate Francois Fillon, the erstwhile leader of the race, who is embroiled in accusations he paid his wife and children hundreds of thousands of euros to perform "fake jobs".
Organisers said a total of 16,000 people followed Macron's speech.
The venue was packed and an overflow crowd of thousands stood outside to listen -- which Macron said was "a demonstration of the desire and enthusiasm" for his business-friendly programme.
Odile Ducloux, a 63-year-old retired teacher, said she was attending her first En Marche meeting.
"I used to vote Socialist, but my husband has been saying for years that we have to overcome the left-right division and thanks to Emmanuel Macron, I am convinced," she told AFP.
In contrast to Le Pen, who wants the EU to be overhauled and France to quit the eurozone, Macron said the country was the cornerstone of the bloc and must remain so.
He also argued in favour of a stronger European defence policy and said he wanted all EU members to commit two percent of GDP to defence spending.
But in a speech punctuated by rapturous applause, Macron's main message was that he could breathe new life into the French economy through innovation and by freeing up businesses from administrative constraints.