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Here’s how and what Macron and Le Pen dueled on TV

2 years ago babelfish

Here's how and what Macron and Le Pen dueled on TV

Tones and themes of the duel on TV between Macron and Le Pen in view of the ballot on April 24 in France

Emmanuel Macron often arrogant. Marine Le Pen often approximate. Effect of those who have been at the Elysée for five years and know the files. He is used to a government political speech. Challenger Le Pen is evidently more at ease in direct speech with the voters. In the remake of the 2017 debate, however, he does not make the same mistakes as then. Five years ago he was in a constant attack, often to the detriment of accuracy. Today does not convince engaged in defense. It is the candidate president who leads the dance. But the emotional level does not emerge. Neither in Le Pen nor in Macron . Anyone looking for a key phrase to remember is disappointed. The nearly three-hour confrontation is pretty boring.

Does the campaign's key debate move the votes?

The debate between the two rounds of the presidential elections is highly anticipated: it is the only one among the finalists. The protocol emphasizes the solemnity of the event. Everything is studied to the millimeter. Temperature included. There is no audience, except for the two moderators who have been agreed by the campaign teams and broadcasters TF1 and France 2 . Could the impact of the confrontation change the outcome of the second round? In light of the televised comparisons of the previous elections, it is possible to doubt it. But a surprise can never be ruled out. The essential challenge for the candidates, however, is to mobilize the undecided electorate.

Still them

Here they are again. Five years ago Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen faced each other, in a debate in which the candidate of the Rassemblement National (RN) did not shine for preparation. Will their 2022 face-to-face impact have the expected impact on voters? "For the moment, the favorite in the polls has always been the winner of the debates", observes Christian Delporte , specialist in French political history. "The debates have never decided the winner of the elections – warns Mathieu Gallard , of Ipsos – Whatever happens , the result is expected, with or without debate ". For now it is difficult to see who scored the points in the urn. Widely favored is Macron . We will see you on Sunday evening.

The meaning of the vote for Macron and Le Pen

“The entire election is a referendum for or against the EU and the links between France and Germany; for or against the ecological transition, because we do not share the same values ​​in this area; for or against secularism, fraternity in our Republic and therefore a referendum for or against who we are ”, Macron said at the end. Le Pen turned "to the French people … who long for the return of tranquility, the return of common sense in the conduct of the state".

Purchasing power first argument of eight

Le Pen and Macron discussed eight major themes, addressed in a random order. All topics already extensively covered by the two challengers in brochures, programs, interviews and speeches. Buying power as an opening theme. Good news for Le Pen , who built his campaign on the subject. According to polls, this is considered more credible by the French. But soon we slipped into a very technical confrontation. The candidate president asks for financial coverage, recalls and interrupts the opponent with insistent Madame Le Pen, Madame Le Pen . He smiles, his eyes widen. He looks like a haughty professor in front of a student in difficulty. It was a debate for the circle of accountants, senior officials.

Very technical Macron

Everything is "technocratized". Macron plays in his field while the opponent has multiplied the hesitations, consulting her notes on inflation, growth, public finances or the functioning of the European market. His opponent is more offensive, at times aggressive, committed to deconstructing Marine Le Pen 's measures to better demonstrate their inconsistency, particularly on purchasing power.

The Ukraine question

The second question is more difficult. Candidates move on to foreign policy. War in Ukraine in the first place. Le Pen acknowledges that all peace efforts must be supported. So okay to Macron too. He thanks with: "You depend on Mr. Putin". And to say that you had welcomed the French president's efforts to find peace, only disagreeing with the idea of ​​blocking the import of Russian gas and oil which would do "much harm to the French people". “You talk to your banker when you talk to Russia!”, He beats Macron again. It was expected: he blamed Marine Le Pen's party's historic funding ties to Russian banks. Including the € 9.6 million loan, granted by the First Czech Russian Bank in 2014. Le Pen's response: “No French bank wanted to grant me a loan”. Same answers already provided in recent days. The Head of State reproaches his opponent for having supported the annexation of Crimea. Le Pen picks himself up and replies: "Crimea must not have caused you too much trouble, too, since you received Vladimir Putin with great pomp in Versailles!" But it doesn't last long.

Le Pen plays defense

Also on the agenda: pensions, health and welfare, environment, competitiveness, youth and education, law and order, governance. Le Pen is about to put Macron in trouble on the budget of his presidency. But it fails. He could argue about the consulting affair and McKinsey only makes a fleeting nod. The presidential candidate approached the clash as a challenger, multiply the attacks. Le Pen is on the defensive. Perhaps he does not want to make the slightest mistake, wanting above all to show a certain "presidentiality". On retirement or purchasing power, for example, two themes that are at the center of his campaign, he loses the ball. Macron is very knowledgeable, he knows. And it dominates. At the end of the debate on security and immigration, Marine Le Pen proved more effective. These are common themes for the right. And it can't be enough.

The missed opportunities for Le Pen

He lost many opportunities first. On the results of Macron 's five-year mandate he does not go into depth. Perhaps he marks a point on nuclear power, when he accuses the president of having wasted time, first aiming to reduce production, then repenting and relaunching. And it does so only in February.
But she is overwhelmed by Macron on the energy issue. She wants to close with renewables, he reminds her that it is not possible. If it aims at energy independence it is necessary to diversify, for the new nuclear power plants it is necessary to wait at least ten years. On economic policy Macron claims to have "created more jobs". One million and 200 thousand. But that's not quite right. See here Le Figaro .

Then he jokes: “I looked at your program, there is not even the word 'unemployment'. As if to say: even Le Pen would have praised the budget of the president-candidate. Le Pen, on this point, resumes only at midnight, in the appeal to the voters when they have already migrated to other TVs, if not already in bed. It invokes "the value of work with respect to the uberization of our work". He means underpaid and precarious work.

Le Pen tries to make fun of Macron as a poorly performing "Mozart of finance" who "has a bad economic balance and an even worse social balance". But it doesn't do it convincingly. The presidential candidate as a tenant of the Elysée, on the other hand, rattles off figures with authority. Patience if even the numbers can offer various readings, as they show analysts and commentators live online all evening. Le Pen does not. On the contrary, it uses some equally questionable ones. The debate is too technical, in an insidious terrain for the candidate of the RN. Ditto on energy policy, hospitals or the fight against Covid. Same demonstration on digital and on the European Union that allows you to have a strategy against the American or Chinese giants. The theme of the European Google that has been talked about for years is back. "I'm in business": says the president and does not bother to specify until when. Le Pen doesn't push him too hard.

Macron attacks

In short: the presidential candidate had the luxury of not having to answer for his results. Marine Le Pen made no attack points. It was Emmanuel Macron on the offensive of the RN program, which he dissected, and she was called upon to respond to his contradictions between her program and her votes in the National Assembly. Passive in the face of attacks from his opponent. On predictable attacks he did not prepare effective arguments.

Le Figaro: "It's not a KO but Macron wins"

The conductors of the debate can only ask questions, not press or deny data. The role is limited to checking the correctness of the timing. On several occasions, Léa Salamé and Gilles Bouleau congratulated the two candidates on the perfect equality of their speaking time. “We are much more disciplined than we were five years ago,” smiles Emmanuel Macron . “We have aged,” adds Marine Le Pen . That the debate happened in this way seemed to satisfy both of them. And the voters? For the conservative, Le Figaro was “A dialogue without a winner by KO, but an advantage for the president” . A "death of politics" debate, complains the editor-in-chief of the conservative daily, Alexandre Devecchio .

For Mélenchon it was a disaster

Far left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon , third in the first round, tweeted that the debate between Macron and Le Pen had been a "waste". "The country deserves better," he adds. “I'm looking forward to the third round”, referring to the French legislative elections in June.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/ecco-come-e-su-cosa-macron-e-le-pen-hanno-duellato-in-tv/ on Thu, 21 Apr 2022 04:15:15 +0000.