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world news Diasabra 9 aPriL 2022

Macron confident as far-right rival closes in ahead of vote

(AP) — President Em- This time, polls forecast the chasing power,” he added.
manuel Macron said Fri- score to be much closer.
day he has no fear of los- Macron stressed the unem-
ing France’s presidential Le Pen has expended much ployment rate decreased from
election, despite far-right energy to take the edge off about 10% to 7.4% during his
rival Marine Le Pen nar- her National Rally party in term and vowed, if reelected,
rowing the gap in opinion order to make it more appeal- to reach “full employment.”
polls days before the first- ing to voters. She has soft-
round vote. ened her image even more Macron chose the online me-
and made purchasing power dia to do his last interview be-
Still, suspense is the watch- the centerpiece of her cam- fore Sunday’s vote in efforts
word in Sunday’s voting to paign, but hasn’t give up on to reach out to young voters,
choose the top two among her key themes: stopping the who tend to be less likely to
a dozen contenders, with a “migratory submersion” and go to the polls than the rest of
predicted low turnout that “eradicating” political Islam. the population.
could help decide the race.
“If Emmanuel Macron had Macron spoke to several voters staying home. That their minds or remain unde-
“I have the spirit of conquest enriched the country, excuse French television and radio would be five points more cided about which candidate
rather than the spirit of de- me but we wouldn’t be talk- channels and newspapers than in 2017. to choose, Lestrohan said.
feat,” Macron, a centrist, said ing about purchasing power,” this week in an final push
in an interview with RTL ra- Le Pen said at her final rally to promote his policies. He The record was in 2002 when “There is still lots of suspense
dio on the final day of cam- Thursday evening in the cited his presidential duties, 28.4% of voters failed to go to in the final stretch,” he said.
paigning. But he cautiously southwest town of Perpignan notably his diplomatic efforts the polls in the first round,
added, “Nothing is ever a whose far-right mayor, Louis over the war in Ukraine, to when then-President Jacques In Perpignan, Le Pen sought
given.” Aliot, is her former compan- justify his absence dur- Chirac was competing with to rally supporters including
ion. ing much of the campaign, Le Pen’s firebrand far-right those mulling about casting
Le Pen, running in her third which has been criticized by father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, their ballot for novice far-
presidential race, has consis- Macron denounced the far- other candidates. among others. Le Pen was right candidate Eric Zem-
tently placed second behind right as “playing with the defeated in the final round in mour, a former TV pundit
Macron in polls. She ap- fears” of people, in an inter- Turnout could be the decid- a landslide. whose bid for the presidency
peared to close the gap even view with French online me- ing factor in the the election is based entirely on the mi-
further according to latest dia Brut on Friday evening. and could harm Le Pen’s “It could even be higher gration issue. He stands in
polls, which have given a dif- “When I look at far-right chances most because her than this record,” Erwan fourth place in the polls, be-
ference of between 1 and 6 views, whoever the candidate working class support base is Lestrohan, director of stud- hind far-left leader Jean-Luc
points between the two. is ... there are lots of links to composed of voters who tend ies at Odoxa, said in an in- Mélenchon.
conspiracy theories, and for to stay at home on election terview Friday with The As-
If the polls mirror election two years of (COVID-19) day. sociated Press. “This is the Le Pen also appealed to sup-
results, Macron and Le Pen pandemic, everything and its final stretch and there are still porters to cast their ballots.
would repeat the 2017 sce- opposite was said, quite wor- Pollsters say measuring the some undecided voters, but
nario, squaring off in a sec- ryingly,” he said. proportion of people who we are very close to a record “To those who stopped vot-
ond round Apr. 24. Macron may not vote is a delicate abstention.” ing because of anger, dis-
won by a landslide five years “And then, there are short- task. The Odoxa polling firm gust, disillusion, fatigue, I tell
ago, taking 66% of the vote to term proposals, sometimes suggested Friday that absten- In addition, three out of 10 them: ‘I understand you’ but
Le Pen’s 34%. not making financial sense at tion could near a historic low people who say they are sure here, become citizen again,”
all or demagogic, like on pur- level, with 27.4% of eligible they will vote could change Le Pen said.

North demolishing hotel that was symbol of Korean engagement

(AP) — North Korea is demolishing a South 2020 as part of stringent measures to prevent CO- since 2017 on March 24, as Kim revives brinkman-
Korean-owned hotel at a North Korean resort VID-19. ship aimed at forcing the United States and other
that was one of the last symbols of inter-Ko- rivals to accept the North as a nuclear power and
rean engagement, according to Seoul officials South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which han- remove crippling sanctions.
who called for the North to stop the “unilat- dles inter-Korean affairs, said Friday that North
eral” destruction. Korea was proceeding with the demolition of the South Korean tours to Diamond Mountain were a
Haegumgang Hotel. The floating hotel, docked at major symbol of cooperation between the Koreas
South Korea built dozens of facilities at North a coastal area of the resort, was a major property and a valuable cash source for the North’s bro-
Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort to accommo- among dozens of facilities South Korea established ken economy before the South suspended them
date tourism by its citizens during a high period of to accommodate Diamond Mountain tours, which in 2008 after a North Korean guard fatally shot a
engagement between the rivals in the 1990s. But began in 1998. South Korean tourist.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2019 called
the South Korean facilities there “shabby” and or- Unification Ministry spokesperson Cha Deok- South Korea can’t restart mass tours to Diamond
dered them destroyed after months of frustration cheol said it wasn’t clear whether the North also Mountain or any other major inter-Korean eco-
over Seoul’s unwillingness to defy U.S.-led sanc- was destroying other facilities at the site. He said nomic activity without defying sanctions, which
tions that kept the tours from resuming. Seoul “strongly regrets North Korea’s unilateral have been strengthened since 2016, when the
dismantlement” of the hotel and urged the North North began accelerating its nuclear and mis-
The North postponed the demolition work in to engage in talks to resolve disagreements over the sile tests. While U.N. sanctions don’t directly ban
South Korean properties at the site. tourism, they prohibit bulk cash transfers that can
result from such business activities.
Commercial satellite images indicate the demoli-
tion work has been underway for weeks. Cha said During their brief diplomacy in 2018, South Kore-
Seoul used inter-Korean communication channels an President Moon Jae-in met Kim three times and
to demand an explanation and talks on the issue, vowed to restart Diamond Mountain tours, voic-
but the North has ignored the request. ing optimism that sanctions could end. But North
Korea suspended cooperation with the South af-
The demolition comes amid heighted tensions ter diplomacy with the U.S. collapsed in 2019 and
over recent missile launches. North Korea con- Seoul wasn’t able to wrest concessions from Wash-
ducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile test ington on its behalf.