Marine Le Pen refuses to participate in debates before the first round without Emmanuel Macron

The candidate of the National Rally for the presidential election, Marine Le Pen, refuses to participate in debates before the first round without Emmanuel Macron, sources inside the party told franceinfo on Monday, January 31. “It’s not on his level”, explains a member of his campaign team for whom he “would be too simple for Emmanuel Macron to arrive at the end of February, do all the broadcasts and report to no one.” If the Head of State does not take part in these confrontations and is represented, Marine Le Pen intends to do the same, “if it’s to debate with Gérald Darmanin, Jordan Bardella can go there”, explains a relative.

Marine Le Pen is the first candidate to let it be known that she will boycott a debate between all the candidates in the absence of Emmanuel Macron. Sunday, Valérie Pécresse had asked “solemnly” a debate to the Head of State, without however conditioning his participation on the presence of the President.

Saturday, January 29, in Le Parisien/Today in France, the government spokesman, Gabriel Attal, declared himself “skeptical” on the usefulness of a debate before the first round of the presidential election for the quasi-candidate Emmanuel Macron against rivals who install, according to him, “a campaign of the living dead.”

On Monday, the entourage of the head of state became even clearer. “The debate with 15 candidates, we exclude it”, a close friend of the president told franceinfo. This “question” of the debates is moreover “demagogic”, according to him.