Emmanuel Macron is firing up his campaign for re-election, directly taking on far-right rival Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential run-off. He made his first trip to a Le Pen stronghold at Denain, one of France’s poorest towns in the industrial north. President Macron won the first round of the election, but opinion polls suggest the second round will be a close race on 24 April. “Make no mistake: nothing is decided,” he told supporters after the vote. Both candidates polled better than the first round in 2017, but Le Pen officials were in far more buoyant mood the morning after the result, even though she trailed the president by four points. Jordan Benalla, president of her National Rally party, was confident Ms Le Pen would find willing support from the 70% of people who voted against Mr Macron. “They know if he gets back in, it’s going to be five more years of social breakdown, fiscal bloodletting, powerlessness over their sovereignty, violence throughout the country and immigration,” he told French radio.(BBC)…[+]