PARIS — France’s presidential contest moved on Wednesday to an unlikely arena: a tumble dryer factory in the country’s north where, if the far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen, did not quite humiliate her rival, Emmanuel Macron, she sure upstaged him.



Workers at the plant, run by Whirlpool in Mr. Macron’s hometown, Amiens, have been striking to prevent the factory from closing. Far from being welcomed as a favored son, Mr. Macron was jeered and booed by a hostile crowd as tires burned, while Ms. Le Pen paid a surprise visit and was greeted with hugs and selfies as activists with her National Front party distributed croissants.

Their separate visits, covered live on French television, showed how Ms. Le Pen’s anti-globalization message resonates in regions struggling with factory closings and the loss of jobs, as well as the hostility that many workers feel for Mr. Macron, a centrist former investment banker who wants to loosen labor rules.

The contrasting styles, policy approaches and loyalties of the candidates, who face each other in a runoff election on May 7, were on full display in Amiens, sometimes painfully so.