(Paris) Five days before the election, the two presidential candidates will cross swords this Wednesday, for a crucial confrontation.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
They have opposed each other by interposed declarations since the start of the campaign between the two rounds. But this time, Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron will cross swords in person.
Five days before the ballot scheduled for Sunday, the two French presidential candidates will face each other on Wednesday evening in a highly anticipated televised debate, which could greatly influence the final result. It will be, for Macron, to convince the skeptics that he deserves their confidence for another term. And, for Le Pen, to make people forget their annoying performance five years ago.
The boss of the National Rally (RN), aggressive, had not been up to it. His lack of preparation was glaring.
We could see her stammering, rummaging through her notes and getting the wrong files in what looked like a slow-motion crash.
The main interested party also admitted to having “stumbled” during the exercise.
Brilliant with his repartee and his mastery of the files, the young Macron had not had much to do to win the match.
He was elected a few days later with 66% of the votes.
Expectations and contempt
However, this Wednesday’s debate could be different.
According to her supporters, Marine Le Pen would have learned from her failure. She has polished her image and would be much better prepared than five years ago. No way for her to miss this second chance to prove that she has presidential stature.
According to experts, one should therefore not assume a bad remake of 2017. Even if the polls give Macron the winner next Sunday, by a much smaller margin than five years ago (54% against 47%), it is not excluded that the voting intentions will be upset in the wake of this new showdown.
PHOTO FRANCOIS MORI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
According to the experts – and the weekly magazine Mariannein particular – the Macron-Le Pen debate this year is not a simple resumption of the previous one.
Le Pen, moreover, will not need a brilliant performance to pull out of the game. “It was so catastrophic the last time that it is enough for him not to be zero to win the debate, summarizes Thomas Guénolé , specialist in the sovereignty issue in France. Expectations of her are very low. It has the advantage of what the English call the low expectations. »
The political scientist recalls that in 1974, François Mitterrand had lost the election after losing his debate against Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, but that he had won the return match seven years later by being content to be “very good … without being excellent”.
Emmanuel Macron will have to raise his level of play by avoiding falling into the trap of arrogance.
For many French people, Macron is still perceived as a “president of the rich”, a label that sticks to the skin, unlike Mme Le Pen, who presents herself as the candidate of the working classes.
” I think that he [Macron] is a keen intellect and that he is ten times stronger than her. But the greatest risk for him is contempt, suggests François Jost, professor emeritus of information and communication sciences at Sorbonne-Nouvelle University. He will have to fight his opponent without showing contempt for his lack of knowledge. »
Highlights
Established in 1974 on the model of American televised debates, the debate between the two rounds has since become a highlight of the presidential campaign.
In addition to its impact on the ballot, this media exercise will have left, over the years, some striking images and memorable replicas, some of which have become cult.
In 1974, Valéry Giscard D’Estaing, a right-wing aspirant to the election, snagged the socialist François Mitterrand by telling him: “But, Mr. Mitterrand, you don’t have the monopoly of the heart. He would later confide in his autobiography that he was elected that year “thanks to a ten-word sentence”.
In 1988, this same Mitterrand, then outgoing president, humiliated his challenger Jacques Chirac, calling him a simple “prime minister”, after the latter had tried to make him admit that they were two candidates on an equal footing in the face of the choice of the French. .
And then there is Nicolas Sarkozy’s affront to Ségolène Royal. In 2007, the right-wing candidate will make his left-wing rival look bad, reproaching her for not knowing how to keep calm, an essential quality for aspiring to the supreme office.
Without forgetting, of course, the canceled debate of 2002, at the request of Jacques Chirac, who refuses to scrap with the candidate of the National Front Jean-Marie Le Pen (father of Marine). The outgoing president believes that accepting a debate with his opponent would amount to trivializing the far right. Times have changed…
Five years ago, 16.5 million viewers watched the K.-O. live from Marine Le Pen. Will the rematch be to his advantage? A few good shots could allow the boss of the RN to replace herself, while her campaign is experiencing some failures. But his margin for error is slim. If she confirms her difficulty in facing an opponent of the caliber of Emmanuel Macron, the rest is likely to be much more complicated for her.