Le Pen uses guerrilla tactics to unsettle Macron

PARIS AFP April27, 2017 French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen hopped on to a fishing boat at dawn on Thursday as she pursued a guerrilla-style campaign that has upstaged frontrunner Emmanuel Macron.   

It was still dark when Le Pen boarded the trawler at the small port of Grau-du-Roi on the south coast for a four-hour trip out to sea, seeking to portray herself as the protector of small businesses against the man she says embodies “unbridled globalisation”.   

Le Pen stole a march on 39-year-old Macron on Wednesday by making an unannounced visit to a Whirlpool factory in northern France where the US appliances giant is threatening to partially outsource production to Poland.   

Her brief visit to pose for selfies with workers forced Macron, who was visiting the town where the factory is based, to hastily change his plans and also go to the site.   Le Pen, 48, was back on the attack on Thursday saying her rival, a former banker, supported “an ultra-liberal economy” and “total deregulation”.   

Macron hit back in a Twitter message that reminded voters of the National Front (FN) candidate’s pledge to pull out of the Eurozone and hold a referendum on France’s membership of the European Union.   

 “Madame Le Pen has gone fishing. Have a good trip...”