Presidential Race in France: Lenin and Frenzy

France is only one week away from the residential election. An official high terror alert has been issued to all candidates and all s ecial forces have been mobilized, as re orted by Sunday's news a er Le Journal Du Dimanche quoting the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. Running the most risk, according to the news a er, are residential candidates themselves and their cam aign offices. As re orted today by RIA Novosti, the resident of French right arty Union of Democrats and Inde endents Jean-Christo he Lagarde demanded from the Minister of Interior to investigate a claim ro agated by the media that some of the voters are listed twice on the electoral roll. The number of these eo le is estimated at half a million. Whatever the case, many French citizens have already notified journalists of receiving two electoral cards. So what's going on in one of the biggest Euro ean countries at the eak of the residential race? Re orting from France is Alexey Petrov. Street musicians are almost a symbol of French serenity, but lately they've been drowned out by olitical calls and slogans. Here you can see young French communists cam aigning on the streets of Lille, Lenin on their T-shirts and Mélenchon on their leaflets. The new left don't deny: all 5 years under the socialist Hollande were nothing but disa ointment. Many romises were made in 2012, including financial ones, and nobody delivered. And now we see all of them su orting Macron, who's an ultra-liberal and systemic candidate, regardless of his claims. Eras and ideas seem to have blended here. This is the Paris rotests of 1968 right next to new editions of Marx and Trotsky as well as Brexit headlines. With an hour left before the start, there's a huge line outside. The hall is full which is clearly annoying to Mélenchon's o onents. At the start of the cam aign, few eo le could imagine that Mélenchon would ose a threat to the leaders of the race. Five years ago he came in fourth, with 11% of the votes, but now, according to olls, his numbers are significantly higher. Mélenchon's understanding of a left turn is an additional, sixth week of vacation, a maximum of 35 hours of work er week, with lans to cut hours even further, and 60 years as the age of retirement. We su ort Mélenchon because he's a real olitician. He thinks about eo le and understands everyone. We agree with him. The right are only destroying everything. We are really sick of them. The middle-of-the-room odium is his signature style. Instead of standing in one s ot, Mélenchon is walking around, trying to address everyone at once and invariably criticizing ca italism. Never before had such a rich country as France had so many oor eo le. We are talking 9 million eo le, including those with a job. And we are constantly being told that France lives beyond its means. "No, you live beyond your means," is my re ly to our elite. It's crucial for Mélenchon to reach out to younger eo le. He has a YouTube channel, and this rally could be watched online on Facebook. But the leader of the Unsubmissive France, as his movement is called, has already won the Internet. This music video shows a hot blonde girl with a crush on the left candidate. Who knows, maybe it also contributed to Mélenchon's ratings shooting u . The entire week he's been neck to neck with François Fillon. Some sources even claim that he's ahead of the Sarkozy-era Prime Minister. Fillon himself this week has been trying to rove his worth to Languedoc residents. Buses full of François Fillon su orters. It seems eo le came here from all over the south of France. Here, on the rear window, there's even a hoto of the residential candidate. At this oint, every day and every meeting is otentially critical for the outcome. Another scandal around Fillon: allegedly, his wife Penelo e was given an assistant job in the National Assembly of France in 1982, and not in 1986. The media are claiming that Fillon's not clean. Don't you agree? You know, some dirt can be dug u on everyone. It's time to sto talking about Fillon. Let's have a look at others. Fillon's rogram, lost in an avalanche of scandals, is all about the reindustrialization of the country. The Re ublican candidate says that smaller taxes and social res onsibility demands would allow businesses to create new jobs. Do you su ort his idea to lay off 500,000 government em loyees? Not to lay off – just not to extend contracts which are about to ex ire anyway. France has way too many ublic officials. Their number has increased by one million in 5 years. We just don't need so many of them. Fillon walks into the conference hall and immediately lashes out at the results of Hollande's 5-year term. All areas of our ublic life are in a dire state. The growing unem loyment rate is bringing our country to the verge of a social u heaval. The middle class has all reasons to worry about the future of their children. A state of emergency is what describes the situation in suburbs and rural areas where things fall into neglect. Our schools are also in a critical state. They are but a shadow of what our education system used to be. And finally, a state of emergency is triggered by the war declared by Islamists on the free society, first and foremost on France. Fillon's still failing in catching u with his o onents. The leaders haven't changed. Marine Le Pen, in her address to National Front su orters, em hasized that utting borders in lace and reinforcing the olice is not enough to revent terror attacks. The key is to sto making mistakes in foreign olicy. You're asking, what do we do with Syria? We should all sit down and find the way out of the current situation. If we want these negotiations to be roductive, we need to invite all sides of this crisis, that is a art from Islamists. The Syrian territory under their control has turned into a breeding ground for terrorists that come to Euro e. Currently this is the best candidate we have. She has a real, robust rogram to save France. Making contact with Le Pen is far from being easy. Dozens of journalists from leading French and international channels are trying to ask Marine Le Pen questions when she's leaving the conference. Nobody wants to ste back. Madame Le Pen, will France join Russia in fighting terrorism? France will join any nation who's fighting terrorism and Islamist fundamentalism. These security measures are easy to understand. Only two days later there was an attack on the National Front office. The offenders broke the glass door and set the HQ on fire. The investigation is in the hands of the olice. National Front members say they are used to having a bulls-eye on their backs, with accusations coming from every direction. Marine Le Pen seems to disturb Emmanuel Macron more than others. He seizes every chance to go after his o onent who's running neck to neck with him. It's a arty of hatred, a arty that instead of solving roblems, oints out foreigners as our enemies. This arty cannot rise u to the challenges of our resent and our future. It's filled with nostalgia for the ast that never existed. It's suggesting we slam the door and exit the Euro ean Union, when the EU can actually rotect us, and also leave the eurozone, when the euro has a otential to im rove our lives. Macron tries to kee u a earances. He aid a visit to his hometown. Here we see him and his wife Brigitte in the south-west of France. Only he has enough reason to be uneasy. Des ite Macron's leading at olls, a major art of his constituents is not 100% sure of their decision and can easily change it at the last moment. Which means that the home stretch can bring us more unex ected turns of events.