Four days before the second round of the French presidential election, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen chained discussions on Russia, the economy or even Europe, the climate and the veil, during a dense and acerbic television debate , but overall courteous.
Emmanuel Macron’s strategy was clear: Marine Le Pen’s slightest error must not be overlooked, pushed to its limits and shown what it was. After the first polite exchanges, the outgoing president therefore quickly unleashed hostilities. ” You depend on Russian power. When you talk to Russia, you talk to your banker “, he launched to the candidate of the National Rally, alluding to a loan of 9 million euros contracted in 2017 by the far-right party from a Russian bank.
Apparently destabilized, Marine Le Pen quickly recovered. Despite the battering, the candidate of the National Rally has thus managed to maintain the posture adopted during the campaign: that of a solid candidate, calm, not entering into invective. Unlike that of 2017 and the debate that she had totally missed.
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The outgoing president, he was at ease. But wanting too much to show his mastery of the files, he sometimes appeared professorial. Faced with her well-crafted arguments, but which may at times seem disconnected from the realities of the French, Marine Le Pen has on the contrary endeavored to remain extremely concrete. On the issue of purchasing power and the abolition of VAT on fuel, she thus mentioned the savings on the fuel tank. By not hesitating in passing to also attack his adversary, considering that the one who could have been described as ” Mozart of finance was all wrong in economics.
Emmanuel Macron has managed to make his balance sheet a strength, by being the most impactful. Marine Le Pen took the blows without getting upset, but without gaining the upper hand either, giving more the impression of dodging the fight and suffering this confrontation. Five years after their first debate which had turned into a rat race, that of this Wednesday was finally firm, but without slippages. A presidential debate where two France faced each other.