(Bloomberg). Emmanuel Macron visited the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, an ex-industrial region on Monday. This signaled a shift in strategy. He is now aiming to increase his re-election campaign to close the gap to Marine Le Pen before a runoff election.

The French president spent several hours mingling with crowds in Denain, where roughly 15% of voters backed him in Sunday’s ballot, compared to 42% who opted for Le Pen. The French president sat down in Carvin (another town in the region) for an hour-long interview with BFMTV. He discussed pensions and purchasing power as well as unemployment.

Macron said he sees “the divisions and people’s difficulties” and defended his social record, especially a cap on energy bills. Macron pledged to be open to charities and unions, while defending his social record that workers get the same benefits and rewards as shareholders when businesses are successful.

The trip was a clear attempt by Macron, 44, to try to shed his image as “a president of the rich” as he tries to convince more voters to keep him at the helm of Europe’s second-largest economy on April 24.

Le Pen finished 4.7 percentage points behind Macron in Sunday’s first round. Although polls show Macron ahead heading into the second phase, Le Pen is already more than 10 percentage points behind her 2017 showing. For her to win she must create an “anyone-but-Macron” coalition. Many left-wing voters will have to either abstain or support her. 

The 53-year-old nationalist didn’t waste any time getting out on the stump, either. After giving a brief press conference, the 53-year-old nationalist was later on in the day in Yonne. She spoke to the crowd about food sovereignty, agriculture and the rising cost of energy.

This is the stage that investors are most closely watching. If Le Pen were to unseat Macron, it would create a shock for the European Union to compare with Donald Trump’s U.S. election win of 2016. The gap between the two fell to seven years last week.

Le Pen’s Resilience Makes France’s Election a Much Closer Race

While Le Pen has benefited from a tailwind largely thanks to her focus on retail politics, Macron’s momentum stalled amid criticism that he was snubbing voters and neglecting domestic matters because of the crisis in Ukraine. 

Why France’s Macron Needs Every Vote to Beat Le Pen: QuickTake

As the president began his charm offensive, his allies were zeroing in on Le Pen’s links to Russia. 

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told RTL radio on Monday that voters have a choice between a president who had put France at the forefront of Europe and an “ally of Vladimir Putin.” 

It’s not clear how successful that strategy will be. 

Le Pen was able to secure a loan of $20,000 from a Russian company for her party in 2014. She also visited Putin in Moscow, Russia in 2017. Despite some sympathy from her close family members, she disassociated herself from Russian President Vladimir Putin after the invasion of Ukraine. So far, polls show voters don’t care. 

For his part, Macron has been speaking to Putin regularly first to try to stop Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and then to try and end the war. He has been accused by his rivals of being naive in his dealings with Putin, who he invited at Versailles just weeks after assuming office five years back.

In Denain, Macron was asked if he’ll sit down with Le Pen as planned on April 20 after having refused to debate the other presidential hopefuls. 

“It’s program against program, so now there will be a debate,” he replied. 

Read more: France’s Stunning Economic Rebound May Seal Macron’s Re-Election

(Continued updates with comments.

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