Muscular duel and many punchlines between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen

They quickly shook hands as they arrived on set. Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen clashed during a televised debate, this Wednesday evening, four days before the second round of the 2022 presidential election. The outgoing president and the candidate of the National Rally fought for nearly three hours a muscular duel but less hectic than five years ago. Couldn’t watch the show? We summarize the highlights for you.

False start for Marine Le Pen

Marine Le Pen obviously wanted to forget the completely failed debate between the two rounds of 2017. Maybe even a little too much. At the start of the program, the candidate of the RN thus launched … too early. False start ! The credits of the show were still in progress, no one could hear his first words. A little embarrassed, the journalists present on the set therefore asked him to start again. The interested party apologized, with a smile, before going back to it a second time.

Emmanuel Macron attacks his opponent… on his record

It was Emmanuel Macron who drew the first, using his rival’s project. “I looked at your program, there is not even the word unemployment, it is a recognition of the work well done during these five years, I thank you for it …”, he launched. And, paradoxically, it was also the outgoing president who attacked his adversary on his parliamentary record, a strategy used throughout the evening, reproaching him here for not having voted for the energy shield carried by the government. “In real life, when you go to apply for a loan from your bank, you are asked for your salary, they don’t care about bonuses,” replied the candidate. “We are all in real life, Madame Le Pen…”, he replied.

“You talk to your banker when you talk about Russia”

More offensive, Emmanuel Macron then tackled his rival on the war in Ukraine for long minutes. “You don’t talk about other leaders, you talk to your banker when you talk about Russia, that’s the problem, Madame Le Pen”, accusing him of having taken out a loan of 9 million euros from a creditor linked to former Russian servicemen for his 2017 campaign. “Your interests are linked to people close to Russian power,” he added.

“Your interests are linked to people close to Russian power.” Macron presses where it hurts by recalling that Marine Le Pen had taken out a loan from the “close to power” bank First Czech Russian Bank in 2015. #debatmacronlepen pic.twitter.com/1S7omJgXRu

— Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) April 20, 2022

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“It’s wrong, I am a totally free woman, I am a patriot, I have demonstrated it all my life”, replied the RN candidate, who justified this loan by indicating that no French bank had wished finance his previous campaign. “It’s long enough, Mr. Macron (to repay), we are a poor party, but it’s not dishonorable,” justified the MP for Pas-de-Calais.

Mozart versus Gerard Majax

Often on the defensive, Marine Le Pen has however pinned the “85 billion euros of trade balance deficit” and the “600 billion euros of debt” of the five-year term. “The Mozart of finance, that’s how you were presented, has an economic record that is very bad. And a social balance sheet which is even worse, ”targeted the candidate of the National Rally. In response, Emmanuel Macron pulled a famous French magician out of his hat. “Despite the figures you can give, we have lowered unemployment. It went from 9.6 to 7.4%. It’s not Gérard Majax tonight, we’re talking about lives behind! The life of our merchants, our artisans, that’s the Covid debt! You voted against” this recovery plan.

Emmanuel Macron never harmed

The debate, rather good, stretched over nearly three hours. Sure of his strength, Emmanuel Macron defended his record tooth and nail, and multiplied the punchlines against his opponent. “We do not do security with words, with tight chins, with postures, but with means, I put them”, he notably launched, defending the thousands of police and gendarme posts created .

The RN candidate also used a few formulas, such as on the ecological question. “I am not climatosceptic, but you, you are climato-hypocrite”. But Marine Le Pen, rather passive and in control, has never managed to put the President of the Republic in difficulty. As if the objective of the evening was above all to make people forget the previous exercise.