17 days before the European elections, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, to the rescue of a list in bad shape, and the great far-right favorite Jordan Bardella, clashed in a sometimes cacophonous televised duel, delivering two irreconcilable visions from Europe.
For almost an hour and a half, the two young leaders – 35 years old for the Prime Minister, 28 years old for the head of the National Rally (RN) list -, ambitious media personalities, debated in prime time the ‘Europe, immigration, purchasing power, the war in Ukraine…
The initially polite tone became more and more offensive, even acerbic, during the debate, Mr. Attal accusing his opponent of “hating Europe”, of “changing his mind on everything”, Mr. Bardella accusing him of “hating Europe”, of “changing his mind on everything”, Mr. Bardella reproaching his side for his record and using “arguments below the belt”.
One of the most heated exchanges focused on Russia. “Your party, that of Mme Le Pen and Jean-Marie Le Pen, needed money. Russia needed a party in Europe precisely to weaken Europe from within.” And “even though you have repaid your debt, you have a moral contract with them”, in the European Parliament, launched the Prime Minister.
“It is not at the level of the Prime Minister of France to have arguments so under his belt,” replied Mr. Bardella, also accusing President Emmanuel Macron of “playing with fire” by not excluding send troops to Ukraine.
Often more comfortable on issues than his rival, Mr. Attal pointed out the “contradictions” and about-faces of the far-right party in its positioning on Europe, and accused it of proposing “measures nonsensical “.
On immigration, the RN’s hobbyhorse, Mr. Bardella castigated the European migration pact, believing that it only left the choice between “compulsory immigration or financial punishment” and repeated his antiphon according to which “delinquency and criminality are linked to the inability to control our migratory flows”.
Decisive polls
Gabriel Attal, who until then had not been much involved in the European campaign, was mandated by President Emmanuel Macron to redress the situation while the polls are bad for the list of the presidential majority. Led by Valérie Hayer, unknown to the general public, it is credited with 16% of voting intentions, closely followed by the socialist list led by Raphaël Glucksmann, at 15%.
The RN is at the top of the voting intention polls, even reaching 33% according to a poll on Thursday.
Excluded from the debate, Mr. Glucksmann denounced “a kidnapping” of the election.
He also launched on Thursday “the call from Paris” to “build a robust dike against the extreme right”, with several European social democratic leaders, including the Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans, the leader of the Belgian socialists Paul Magnette, the Luxembourg European Commissioner Nicolas Schmit…
In the far-right camp, the very organization of this debate was a satisfaction, the RN congratulating itself on being elevated to the rank of main adversary. The party is thus continuing its strategy of de-demonization, begun a decade ago by Marine Le Pen, who distanced herself from the racist and anti-Semitic outbursts of her father, Jean-Maris Le Pen, founder of the party in 1972.
In this perspective, the National Rally has just broken with its sulphurous German allies in the Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany), who are accumulating slip-ups.
The German far-right AfD party was excluded on Thursday from the Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament – which includes the French RN – following a series of scandals involving one of its leaders, Maximilian Krah .
The RN, for its part, suggests a rapprochement with Italian leader Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right formation Fratelli d’Italia is a member of the group of European Conservatives and Reformists (CRE).