This is the long-awaited return match. Wednesday April 20, from 9 p.m., Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen meet on TF1 and France 2 for the traditional debate between the two rounds of the presidential election. The two qualified for the second round will exchange their arguments for more than two hours under the watchful eye of viewers. In 2017, 16.4 million French people watched the very tough debate between the candidate of En Marche! and the National Front candidate.
Marine Le Pen’s performance was unanimously disappointed, criticized even in her own camp. “The debate was a failure for which I paid a very heavy price”, she confided to franceinfo in March. Marine Le Pen should this time seek to become president and not be too aggressive. The outgoing president should also not attack his opponent on his person and he would plan to put forward his experience. Before turning on your television, franceinfo details everything you need to have in mind about this unmissable presidential event.
Who organizes the debate?
The TF1 and France 2 channels are in charge of organizing this debate, which will also be broadcast on continuous news channels such as LCI and franceinfo (channel 27 of TNT). The campaign teams of Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen are also closely associated with the preparation of this meeting.
Gilles Bouleau, presenter of the 20-hour TF1 newspaper, and Léa Salamé, journalist at France 2 who notably hosted the program “Elysée 2022”, will be the arbiters of this debate. Their role will be to moderate the exchanges between the two candidates. “We are facilitators. We will do everything to ensure that this debate takes place in conditions of perfect equality, fairness, transparency and dignity”explains the journalist of the first channel to franceinfo. “Our job is to try to ensure equal speaking time and the proper conduct of debates so that it is intelligible”adds Léa Salamé.
“We are here to set the pace, move from one theme to another, watch the equality of the two stopwatches, and that’s it.”
Léa Salamé, presenter of the debateat franceinfo
In the production, it was Didier Froehly who was chosen to put the debate into images. The latter is known for having produced entertainment programs such as “Friday everything is permitted with Arthur”, “Dancing with the Stars” or the NRJ Music Awards, but he also distinguished himself during political meetings such as during debates. right-wing and left-wing primaries in 2017. According to The Parisianthere was no question for Marine Le Pen to again use the services of Tristan Carné, at the helm of the 2017 debate.
Each camp has also appointed a director who will oversee the image of its candidate. For Marine Le Pen, it is the former LCI journalist, Philippe Ballard, now a member of the National Rally; for Emmanuel Macron, it was director Jérôme Revon, who took care of the Arena and Marseille meetings, who was selected. Both will be present in the OB van and will be able to intervene in the director’s headset. “But at the end of the day, I remain the decision-maker of the whole debate”ensures Didier Froehly.
What does the board look like?
“It’s an organization to the millimeter, on the color of the background, the spacing of the tables, the place of the microphones, the glasses of water…”, list Laurent Guimier, the director of information for France Télévisions. Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron will face each other 2.5m apart, as in 2017, but this time there will be no table between the two. And the positions will be reversed: Emmanuel Macron will be on the left of the screen and Marine Le Pen on the right. The two candidates will be seated behind small desks on which they can put their cards and also follow the countdown of the speaking time. Journalists will stand further away, 4 m from the candidates, on a separate desk. The two debate referees will make a standing presentation, before returning to their seats. The debate must last 2h30, as in 2017.
Here is the set on which the debate between two rounds will be held tomorrow between Marine #The pen and Immanuel #Macron #2022LeDebat @franceinfo pic.twitter.com/ZKinkk1NmF
— Guillaume Daret (@GuillaumeDaret) April 19, 2022
No less than 23 cameras are planned to capture the entire debate, including a 12 m telescopic crane and a tracking shot. In detail, 16 cameras will film the debate, 4 cameras will be there as a backup, 2 others will be used for sign language translation and a camera will follow the candidates upon their arrival. The director will be able to offer close-ups on the candidates, such as wide shots with the two protagonists. There will be no audience and the backdrop will consist of a large screen 30.50 m wide and 3.70 m high. Nothing has been left to chance, right down to the air conditioning, which will be set to 19°C. To anticipate any problem, an emergency generator has also been installed.
Have rules been set?
Yes, there is even “a charter of achievement which is written in agreement with the candidates, signed by the candidates for Arcom [l’ancien CSA]“, explained Didier Froehly on France Inter. The negotiation between the two teams focused in particular on the cutting plans, which make it possible to see the reactions of one candidate when the other speaks. Five years ago, Marine Le Pen sometimes appeared in difficulty on certain plans, looking in her files for what the candidate’s team wants to avoid at all costs this year.
So there will be listening plans. When a candidate speaks, the other will be shown watching him, explains the management of France Télévisions. There will be an equivalent number of listening plans for each candidate, for example when “the candidate holds the gaze of his interlocutor in front of him, acquiesces or not, has a grin, etc.”illustrated Didier Froehly on Europe 1. The objective is to avoid showing parasitic gestures.
“I think a cutaway of someone scratching their nose, looking through their index cards, or drinking water isn’t very helpful to the viewer.”
Didier Froehly, director of the debateon France Inter
Lots were also drawn to determine the order in which the candidates would speak. Marine Le Pen will therefore answer the first question and Emmanuel Macron will have priority in the conclusion (which means that the candidate of the National Rally will have the last word).
What topics will be covered?
Eight themes have been chosen for this debate. A draw was made to determine the order of the subjects because the candidates did not manage to agree, according to the direction of information of France Télévisions. The two candidates will therefore begin the discussion with the theme of purchasing power. Then, they will discuss the international, the social model (pensions, health, dependency), the environment, competitiveness and French attractiveness, youth (education, training…), security and immigration and finally the institutions.
In 2017, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen had exchanged in order on the economy, terrorism, education and Europe. They had also been able to develop a carte blanche at the end of the debate, an opportunity that Marine Le Pen had not seized when she had prepared an intervention on small pensions, according to her former adviser Florian Philippot.
How did the candidates prepare?
Marine Le Pen knows she has revenge to take and has actively prepared for this debate. Relaxed agenda, fact sheets and thematic notes, dummy debates… The candidate has fine-tuned the last details “At her place” surrounded by close advisers. “You know, the debate, we have been preparing it for 5 yearsadds Philippe Olivier, close adviser to the candidate. “When she prepares her project, when she figures it out, she is already in this preparation.” The candidate of the National Rally will try to avoid repeating the same mistakes as five years ago.
“I imagine that she will have corrected things on the form, that she will go more on her project and less on the systematic attack.”
Florian Philippot, former adviser to Marine Le Penat franceinfo
On the side of Emmanuel Macron, we expect a Marine Le Pen “much better prepared” than five years ago. But his supporters show their confidence. “We know him, I expect a solid performance from him”, assures a macronist strategist. Since Monday, according to The Parisian, the outgoing president is preparing with his relatives, including the secretary general of the Elysée Alexis Kohler, the Minister of Agriculture Julien Denormandie and that of Overseas Sébastien Lecornu. The program of the RN candidate has been dissected in order to identify its flaws. The challenge will be to deconstruct the image of a Marine Le Pen champion of purchasing power. It will be “project against project”, as macronists like to repeat. There is therefore no question, a priori, of attacking the person of Marine Le Pen.