Macron gets rough ride in Le Pen country

AMIENS, France: French presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron was booed and heckled with chants backing his far-right rival Marine Le Pen as he made a chaotic visit to an under-threat factory in the nation’s rustbelt on Wednesday.

Some in the crowd shouted "President Marine!" and booed as the 39-year-old former banker arrived outside the Whirlpool appliance factory in the northern city of Amiens, where Le Pen had made an unannounced stop hours earlier.

"I am here to speak to you," the pro-business former economy minister told workers, ringed by a horde of cameramen and journalists. "Of course there is anger in this country, there is anxiety. Responsibility must be taken, that’s why I’m here."

The factory operated by Whirlpool, a US multinational company, is threatened with outsourcing to Poland. Macron was in Amiens, his home town, to try to counter accusations that he had made a complacent start to campaigning for the presidential runoff on May 7. He finished ahead of Le Pen, 48, in the first round on Sunday.

A poll out on Wednesday suggested that Macron will defeat Le Pen by a margin of 21 points, but as the day’s events showed, the far-right candidate is a vastly more experienced political campaigner.

And after the shocks of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and Donald Trump’s unlikely ascent to the White House, analysts say a late surge by Le Pen is still possible.

Macron was also due to hold a rally in Arras, a city in the economically depressed north where Le Pen topped first-round voting.

While Macron had arranged to meet Whirlpool workers’ union representatives without actually visiting the plant, Le Pen turned up unannounced outside the plant and posed for selfies with workers and attacked her rival.

"Everyone knows what side Emmanuel Macron is on -- he is on the side of the corporations," Le Pen said.

"I am on the workers’ side, here in the car park, not in restaurants in Amiens."

As news broke of the Le Pen visit, Macron announced he would also go to the plant to meet with its employees.

After arriving, he told angry workers that the only reason that the anti-EU Le Pen had come was "because I’m here".

He also retorted on Twitter that she had spent "10 minutes with her supporters in a car park in front of the cameras" whereas he had spent "an hour and a half with union representatives and no media."