Macron Le Pen 2022 debate: The president throws the blows, the ultra defends itself

The same protagonists, but an obvious change of roles. The French President, Emmanuel Macronand the extreme right Marine LePen They faced each other this Wednesday night in the only debate television of the French presidential campaign, whose second round will be held this Sunday.

It has been a repetition of the same duel that marked the final stretch of the 2017 campaign. Then, Le Pen, very aggressive, was exposed before a much more skillful centrist candidate at the rhetorical level. This time the roles were reversed. The president devoted himself to put on the ropes to the candidate of the extreme right, who defended with some skill. And she did not fall with a crash as in the previous face to face, which gave rise to numerous memes due to the histrionic behavior of the leader of the National Regrouping (RN, then called National Front).

After about the first 20 minutes of a fairly leisurely debate dedicated to the purchasing power -main concern of the French-, in the part dedicated to the war in ukraine the first zascas of the president to the candidate of the RN began. “When you speak to Russia she does not do it as a leader, but as a lender,” Macron reproached his rival, whose party requested two loans from Russian banks. “You depend on Russian power and on Putin,” he added. Faced with criticism of his “dependence” on to the Kremlin, Le Pen lamented: “It is quite dishonest that I am prevented from getting a loan at a French bank and then reproached for asking for it abroad.”

In addition to his “dependence” on the Kremlin, the centrist leader also accused his adversary of wanting “the France’s exit from the EU or what was “climate skeptic“. Macron tried throughout the debate to corner Le Pen in the right corner of the board. Despite the president’s rhetorical skill, the RN leader showed that she had done her homework regarding her catastrophic performance of 2017. This time he concentrated on explaining his project of “everyday life” and as “spokesman for the French”. Basically, he wanted to show an image of a female head of state that is not scary. A defensive strategy.

“The retirement at 65 years of age it is an absolutely unbearable injustice,” said the ultra-nationalist and xenophobic candidate about one of the most controversial electoral proposals of the centrist candidate, who wants to extend the minimum retirement age by three years (currently at 62 years after having contributed 42 years). “As happened with other issues, the president tried to show off his social fiber in the face of criticism of his retirement system reform. “I will increase the minimum pensions from 980 to 1,100 euros,” he defended himself. “Regarding his success in terms of unemployment, let me doubt it. There is 400,00 more poor people in the country and this is the result of his policies”, criticized Le Pen, who mocked his rival calling him “Mozart of finance”.

The blows between the two candidates also occurred when they discussed the climate urgency. “His project is very transparent, he is climate-sceptic,” said the centrist leader, while his rival accused him of “climate hypocrisy.” According to her, he had applied “a punitive ecology (& mldr;) of great violence for the middle classes and the modest classes”.

Another tense moment took place at the moment when the harsh Lepenista proposal of ban islamic headscarf in the public space. “In the popular neighborhoods, you will create a civil war,” Macron assured of this measure, which, according to him, represents “a betrayal of the French spirit.” A few minutes later, while she was trying to recover from this dialectical saber, the ultra candidate ran as the candidate of the “yellow vests” and a supporter of a more direct democracy. “I want a democratic revival with the application of a citizens’ initiative referendum“, he said about one of the main demands of the protesters who overflowed the streets in the winter of 2018.

Since 1981, the same second round as in the previous presidential elections has not been repeated in France. So the socialist Francois Mitterrand he took his particular revenge in his television duel against the outgoing president Valery Giscard d’Estaing (center-right), who in the same face-to-face meeting in 1974 had marked public opinion by reproaching the leader of the left for not having “a monopoly on feelings.” In this second leg, it would be an exaggeration to consider that Le Pen achieved a comeback compared to his catastrophic television performance in 2017. But he did win points in his objective of trivializing the extreme right.

Unlike what happened five years ago when the centrist leader completely opted for the campaign with the debate, this time neither of the candidates overwhelmed the other. Hardly this face to face will have a decisive weight in the final stretch of the race to the Elysee. The president came out rather unscathed despite a balance full of chiaroscurowhile his rival continued with his will to normalize.

The repetition of this face to face reflects how in the last five years the pulse between macronismo and lepenismo has been consolidated, instead of the historical left-right axis. However, this rivalry does not excite a considerable part of the French either. “What a waste!”, the rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon (socioecologist) tweeted after the conclusion of the debate. After coming within 400,000 votes of beating Le Pen in the first round, he is now aiming for a left-wing parliamentary majority in June’s legislative elections.

According to the latest polls, Macron would win the second round with 56.5% of the vote against Le Pen’s 43.5%. Increasingly worn, the “republican front” – an expression used in France to designate the democratic cordon against the far right – seems to continue to function, according to opinion polls. Since the night of the first round of April 10, the centrist leader increased his advantage by three points. This margin makes it favoritealthough a surprise equivalent to the victory of the Brexit or of donald trump in 2016.