Round two Macron and Le Pen battle to win over left's voters

Emmanuel Macron is engaged in the battle of his career to persuade leftwing voters many of whom have taken to the streets to oppose his government over the past five years - to turn out this Sunday and give him a second term in office.

- Kim Willsher

Macron campaign poster in Paris is covered with a Mélenchon sticker

Both Macron and Le Pen need to win over a chunk of the 7.7 million people who voted for the radical left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, narrowly knocked out in the first-round ballot on 10 April.

In Trappes, south-west of Paris, where almost 61% of voters chose Mélenchon, opinion was divided this week about what to do next. Le Figaro newspaper suggested that “on the presidential motorway, Emmanuel Macron is trying a subtle turn to the left”. But the mayor of Trappes, Ali Rabeh, a former member of the Socialist party who campaigned for Mélenchon, said: “If Macron is going to say something it should be a clear message of compromise, not something vague like perhaps lowering his proposal for retirement at 65 to 64-and-a-half.”