In May last year, then French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron sat down with Socialist lawmaker Christophe Sirugue in the steel town of Le Creusot and asked him to join his new political movement. He said No. Eight months on, others are saying Yes. A political outsider who has never run for office and hopes to transcend the classic Left-Right divide, Macron suddenly seems to have a fighting chance of winning the keys to the Elysee Palace and becoming president before he turns 40. The latest polls show him breathing down the necks of conservative front-runner Francois Fillon and the far right's Marine Le Pen and he is drawing larger crowds than both at rallies across France. Macron's rise is beginning to create cracks in the mainstream parties as more and more local officials disregard party orders and defect to the 39-year-old's campaign. On the right, four former center-right ministers have backed Macron, illustrating Fillon's struggle to rally moderates behind free-market policies harking back to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Macron's magnetic pull is also being felt at the center. When the management of the small UDI party endorsed Fillon, the party's youth wing sent a furious statement announcing that their 130 elected officials and supporters would back Macron. A "UDI Youth" sign now adorns the door of a small room at Macron's modest presidential campaign headquarters in the 15th district of the French capital. Long-time centrist presidential hopeful Francois Bayrou, who may get about 5 percent of the vote, is facing growing calls from his base to throw in the towel and rally behind Macron. The momentum behind Macron is starting to sow panic too in the ranks of the Socialists, who fear they have little chance of making the runoff in May after five years of uninspiring rule by President Francois Hollande. Fifty Socialist members of parliament have already joined Macron, according to his team, defying threats of expulsion from their own party. Even in remote regions of the country, he is attracting more people to rallies than his rivals. More than 2,000 supporters attended his event in the central city of Clermont-Ferrand this month, for example — while former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who is gunning for the Socialist ticket, only pulled in 300 people there, according to local media. "There's a real possibility that at some point the dyke breaks and the Socialist party starts hemorrhaging officials towards Emmanuel Macron," Jerome Sainte-Marie, head of pollster PollingVox, told Reuters. An Odoxa poll this month showed Macron would get 16 percent to 24 percent of votes in the first round in April, putting him within a whisker of Le Pen and Fillon. In the latest Harris Interactive poll, 41 percent said they "trusted" Macron and he was more popular than Fillon for the first time in a December poll by Odoxa.
