why Emmanuel Macron insists on debating with Marine Le Pen

Two weeks before the European elections, Emmanuel Macron offered a televised debate to Marine Le Pen who declined his offer. The other opponents are indignant.

If Emmanuel Macron wants to get involved to this extent in the European election campaign, it is for “unmask the RN” of which “ideas threaten Europe“, he repeated on Sunday May 26 in Germany, during his state visit. Of course, if he is pawing at getting into the ring, it is because Valérie Hayer’s list is in difficulty, while Jordan Bardella is leading the polls. It’s about mobilizing the majority’s electoral base.

But Emmanuel Macron above all wants to dismantle the far-right party’s spin on Europe, the euro and even the Schengen area. According to him, the RN project still leads to Frexit, but he no longer accepts it. At the Élysée, we even found a formula to describe Marine Le Pen’s doublespeak: she would practice “taqiya“, this concealment tactic used by certain Islamists to hide their fundamentalist beliefs.

Marine Le Pen refused this debate offer. After having demanded it for a long time, she found a pretext to evade, she demands that the President of the Republic undertakes to resign or dissolve the Assembly, if the Renaissance list does not come first on June 9. Marine Le Pen has fond memories of her two duels with Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and 2022. She also observed Jordan Bardella’s difficulties last week against Gabriel Attal, for example, to try to explain how his proposed true-false “double border“.

Above all, Marine Le Pen’s changes seem inconsequential so far. Just last week, after having voted for the government project to unfreeze the electoral body, she called for a fourth referendum on self-determination in New Caledonia. It therefore no longer excludes, in the long term, the independence of the archipelago, a break with half a century of history of the FN which has not aroused any controversy. There is therefore no question of taking the risk of a televised debate.

Raphaël Glucskmann and François-Xavier Bellamy are indignant at the head of state’s proposal, and it is normal that they are annoyed to see him try to steal their limelight. They even accuse him of playing shortcuts to the RN by wanting to debate with him. Even if some, like Raphaël Glucksmann on France Inter, have already debated with Jordan Bardella. Basically, this controversy illustrates the current political climate quite well: the RN, even silent, dictates the agenda of the other candidates. And they are more likely to focus their arrows on Emmanuel Macron rather than on Jordan Bardella.