Barack Obama Just Backed Emmanuel Macron To Become President of France
Macron faces far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in an election this Sunday, May 7.
Barack Obama has publicly backed French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron ahead of this weekend's election. In a short video tweeted by Macron, Obama stressed that “the success of France matters to the entire world.”
Centrist Macron will go head-to-head with Marine Le Pen of the far-right Front National in a runoff vote on Sunday, May 7.
Speaking about the importance of the vote and it's potential ramifications, Obama said: “I’m not planning to get involved in many elections now that I don’t have to run for office but the French election is very important to the future of France and the values that we care so much about.”
Obama urged the people of France to vote with their “hopes and not their fears” and ended, in French, saying “Vive la France.”
Polls currently put Macron 20 points ahead of Le Pen in the run up to the election. Watch the Obama video above.