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French president Emmanuel Macron and far-right challenger Marine Le Pen faced off on Wednesday evening in their only debate ahead of Sunday’s presidential election run-off, battling over who would be best placed to improve voters’ purchasing power and run France’s foreign policy.
For Ms Le Pen, who lags Mr Macron in opinion polls, the much-awaited confrontation is a chance to persuade voters she has the stature to be president and they should not fear seeing the far-right in power.
“For the past five years I have seen [the French people] suffer, I’ve seen them worry about a downgrading in their quality of life . . . and I would like to tell them that another choice is possible,” Ms Le Pen said at the start of the debate, adding: “I will be the president of the cost of living.”
Mr Macron’s strongest line of attack against his far-right rival at the start of the debate was her past admiration of Russian president Vladimir Putin, a loan for the 2017 campaign contracted through a Russian bank and her recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
“You depend on the Russia power, you depend on Mr Putin. You took out a loan from a Russian bank,” Mr Macron told his opponent. “A lot of your choices can be explained by this dependence,” he said, adding: “you made a choice that constrained you politically.”
In a heated exchange, during which Mr Macron at one point told Ms Le Pen “Are you kidding me?” Ms Le Pen rejected the accusations, saying: “I am a completely free and independent woman.”
Ms Le Pen said Europe should not stop importing Russian gas and oil. She said that she agreed with the sanctions against Russian oligarchs and the financial system but not with energy-related measures. “The only sanction I disagree with is blocking the import of Russian gas and oil. That is not the right method,” she said.
With unemployment at a 13-year low, Mr Macron said he was proud of job creation during his term and added: “the best way to gain purchasing power is to fight unemployment”.
The two candidates kept interrupting each other at the start of the debate, with Ms Le Pen saying that “in real life” her proposals would improve voters’ situation much more than her opponent, while Mr Macron said some of her proposals were not realistic.
Ms Le Pen said Mr Macron’s cost of living proposals would be inefficient.
The election presents voters with two opposing visions of France: Mr Macron offers a pro-European, liberal platform, while Ms Le Pen’s far-right nationalist manifesto is founded on deep Euroscepticism.
Much haggling went on behind the scenes ahead of the debate, from the temperature of the room to flipping a coin to decide which theme they would start with – the cost of living – to who would speak first – Ms Le Pen.
Last time they faced off in a debate, in 2017, Le Pen’s presidential challenge unravelled as she mixed up her notes and lost her footing.
The prime-time debate on that occasion cemented Macron’s status as the clear front-runner.
After more than half of the electorate voted for far-right or hard left candidates in the first round, Mr Macron’s lead in opinion polls is much narrower than five years ago, when he beat Ms Le Pen with 66.1 per cent of the vote. Voter surveys on Wednesday projected he would win with 55.5-56.5 per cent this time. – Reuters