Jean-Luc Melenchon is backed by Communists, wants to quit Nato, and is shaking up France’s presidential race

It is a sign of the momentum behind the French Communist-backed presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon that one of the frontrunners has started attacking him. The Twitter feed of 39-year-old centrist Emmanuel Macron released a clip Sunday that suggests Melenchon can’t keep his campaign pledges, an argument echoed in a France 3 television interview Sunday. “Jean-Luc Melenchon - he’s a very nice guy but his promises are impossible to deliver and his program would be a disaster for France,” Macron said. “He’s for the destruction of the European Union, the Europe that protects us. He is for massive taxation. Personally, I don’t know how you create jobs without companies.” But the acknowledgment from Macron will be music to the ears of the far-left Melenchon. Polls show him closing in on the frontrunners, Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen, ahead of the April 23 first round of voting, adding new drama to a rollercoaster campaign. Melenchon drew tens of thousands of supporters to an open-air rally Sunday, underlining his surging popularity just two weeks out from voting. The polls have him climbing over scandal-struck right winger Francois Fillon into third position, with 18-19 per cent of voters saying they would vote for Melenchon, compared to 17 per cent for Fillon. Speaking in Marseille, Melenchon said voters had a choice other than the extreme-right “condemning our great multi-coloured people to hate itself” and fans of the free-market that “transforms suffering, misery and abandonment into gold and money”. Left-leaning news magazine L’Obs commented that “the sudden emergence of Jean-Luc Melenchon among the four candidates with around 20 per cent has shattered all the predictions, (and) is sowing doubt among the favourites.” “We can hear it. We can feel it. Victory is within our reach,” the Marseille rally was told by Melenchon, who aims to take France out of Nato and also hold a referendum on EU membership. Organisers said 70,000 people gathered in Marseille’s Old Port district to hear Melenchon. Analysts say forecasting the two-stage election is even more difficult than usual, with an unusually high number of voters saying they plan to abstain or have not made up their minds. We can hear it. We can feel it. Victory is within our reach Jen-Luc Melenchon to supporters in Marseille Le Pen and Macron are neck-and neck but both have lost ground slightly and would win 23-24 per cent if the vote were held today. This would mean both qualifying for the run-off scheduled for May 7, which polls suggest Macron would win comfortably - although analysts caution against firm predictions. Fillon also held one of his biggest rallies so far, gathering thousands of supporters at a Paris conference hall. The ex-premier is desperate to pick up momentum after a campaign dominated by allegations he paid his wife hundreds of thousands of euros for a fake parliamentary job. “I’m not asking you to love me - I’m asking you to support me, because it’s in France’s interest,” he told the crowds on Sunday. One former minister and Fillon ally admitted on condition of anonymity: “If he doesn’t rise a few points (in the polls) this week, it’s over.” Le Pen meanwhile sparked criticism from Jewish groups with an interview in which she denied the French state was responsible for the wartime round-up of more than 13,000 Jews at Paris’ Vel d’Hiv cycling track who were then sent to Nazi death camps. “I think that generally speaking if there are people responsible, it’s those who were in power at the time. It’s not France,” she told LCI television. The CRIF umbrella grouping of Jewish organisations called the comments “an insult to France, which honoured itself in 1995 by recognising its responsibility in the deportation of France’s Jews”. Macron detailed what his priorities would be for his first few months in office, telling the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that one of his first measures would be to pass a law setting new ethical standards for parliament. This would be followed by other legislation to cut the number of MPs by a third and to free up the labour market. Asked about a slight fall in support according to surveys, he replied: “They show exactly what I feel: that nothing is decided yet. We are entering a crucial phase.” Additional reporting by Bloomberg and Reuters