John Irish

PARIS, (Reuters) – Protests are expected in France Saturday by far-right Presidential candidate Marine Le Pen as her opponents seek to unify to keep her from defeating incumbent Emmanuel Macron.

As demonstrators gather in over 30 cities, police have issued warnings about possible violence.

Macron is a pro-European Union centrist and won the presidency in 2017. He easily beat Le Pen in the runoff in order to keep Le Pen out of power.

Macron has a tougher task this year.

However, he has a slight advantage in opinion polls. But Le Pen had previously successfully used anger and frustration over Macron’s living costs to win the first round of voting on April 10. This resulted in her finishing with 23.1% votes, compared to 27.85% of Macron.

She has been more upset this week, as attention has shifted to her program and opinions polls show Macron expanding his lead. On Friday, an IPSOS-Sopra-Steria poll showed that Macron won with 56% vote support.

Francois Hollande, former president of France and Nicolas Sarkozy have backed him. He is also supported by hundreds celebrities and sports figures who want to prevent Le Pen from coming to power.

CALL LE PENS TO BE REJECTED

Le Pen is an anti-immigration politician and eurosceptic. She has tried to improve her image as well as that of National Rally in recent years. Macron and other opponents have claimed that her program is filled with lies and made false promises, which Le Pen strongly refutes.

“The far right once again is in the second round presidential election strengthened with a level support never before seen.” In a joint statement, the Human Rights League stated that they refused to allow it to win power. The call for protest was signed by dozens of rights organizations, unions, and associations.

According to the statement, “By rejecting Marine Le Pen’s proposal it is about stopping the emergence of a project so as to destroy the rule-of-law and the social democratic republic that we support each day.”

The election will most likely be won by someone who is able to reach out beyond their camp and convince more voters that there are better options than the alternative.

The far right was kept out of power by a “republican Front” consisting of citizens of every stripe supporting a main candidate for many decades.

Macron’s sometimes aggressive style and policies to the right that have upended many voters can now be counted on, but not automatically.

On Saturday, anti-Macron demonstrators will gather in central Paris. Louis Aliot, an important member of National Rally, spoke out to BFM TV and dismissed the demonstrations against far-right.

Many people protest against Mr Macron’s actions in breaking society over the past five years. You really believe people are dumb? He said.