For Marine Le Pen, there is no doubt that the debate on Wednesday, which pitted her against her opponent in the in-between round, Emmanuel Macron, constituted a counterpoint to that of 2017. Let us remember: this year- there, she had multiplied the attacks against her adversary, in particular the personal attacks.
>> Presidential debate: what to remember from the duel between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron
To the point of forgetting to defend his own program – which Emmanuel Macron had had a good time reminding him. On Wednesday, Marine Le Pen spent most of her time recalling the measures contained in her project… to the point of not very much looking for the outgoing president on her balance sheet. After five years in charge, it would have been a legitimate line of attack.
Thus, as the debate progressed, the roles were reversed: it was Emmanuel Macron who asked Marine Le Pen to account for his record as a political leader of the opposition. On his votes in the National Assembly; on the consistency of its program with the one it defended five years ago; on the loan contracted with a Russian bank and, more broadly, on its positions in terms of foreign policy. It is almost a debate with reversed fronts that we have witnessed, and this reversal seems to be to the advantage of Emmanuel Macron.
So here is a debate in which, once again, the RN candidate opts for a questionable strategy, which makes her largely miss the issue of the debate: in 2017, to demonstrate that she could be credible as president, by 2022, demonstrate that Emmanuel Macron would not be a credible candidate for re-election. Moreover, throughout the evening, there was almost no question of the McKinsey affair. One would have expected Marine Le Pen to attack the outgoing president head on on this issue, especially since she had elements – the report of the senatorial commission, the preliminary investigation opened by the national financial prosecutor’s office . But no: the prestigious consulting firm has only been mentioned once. An attack in the form of an allusion, defused before it could even be harmful: this is proof that Marine Le Pen has, in part, given up attacking Emmanuel Macron on his balance sheet.
The first thing that strikes you in Emmanuel Macron’s strategy is that he often agreed, never hesitating to underline the points of convergence with Marine Le Pen. Many times he said to her: “On this point, you are right.” Such regularity can only be the sign of a strategy. And precisely, the interest of this type of sentences is that they make it possible to reflect the image of someone open and non-dogmatic. But not only…
At the same time, whenever possible, Emmanuel Macron insisted on the mistakes made, according to him, by Marine Le Pen: “That’s wrong, you’re wrong, don’t talk nonsense.” Throughout the debate, Emmanuel Macron therefore assumed the right to congratulate the true and correct the false in his opponent. That is to say, he behaved, in fact, like his teacher. Unlike Marine Le Pen, he therefore resumed his 2017 strategy: attack his opponent on his credibility, take it from above, to try to send it back to an image of amateurism.
The strategy seems to have paid off, in large part, especially since it was underpinned by silent body language. Emmanuel Macron took full advantage of the cutaways, overplaying his listening posture: slumped body, raised eyebrows, cheek resting on his fist, it is clearly the dubious attitude of the professor appalled by the nonsense of a bad student . With, in the end, the impression that he has effectively taken over Marine Le Pen. With, however, a price to pay: this strategy can only help to reinforce the image of arrogance that he already has, at least with part of the electorate.