This Wednesday, April 20, the candidate of the National Rally (RN) is ready for revenge. Five years after the failed debate between the two rounds of 2017, the representative of the far right faces Emmanuel Macron again, determined not to make the same mistakes as in the past. Her failure then, she keeps repeating, forged her. It is barely 9 p.m. when the presenters announce that she will speak first. She grimaced at the sight of the decor mimicking the Elysée, behind her, which values the president in office to her taste. But she takes off. “France is its people”, she begins before her voice is suddenly drowned out by the sound of the jingle. False start. Embarrassed. The show hasn’t started yet. Emmanuel Macron smiles then rolls his eyes.
Metaphor for a failed meeting, once again, between the three-time candidate and her presidential destiny. In nearly three hours of debate against the outgoing president, Marine Le Pen gave the impression of never being able to get back on the starting line when her pugnacious opponent was struggling not to err on the side of confidence. Like a boa constrictor, Emmanuel Macron seemed to gradually tighten his opponent until she suffocated. And the multiple incises and marks of respect of the president, regularly dropping ” you are right “were only intended to better point out the inconsistencies and weaknesses in the candidate’s reasoning, the consequences of which he constantly denounced. “counter-truths”.
Expense hunt
The first minutes devoted to purchasing power, however, promised to benefit Marine Le Pen. Alas, she tripped. She accused Emmanuel Macron of having introduced the carbon tax and of having cut housing aid by 5 euros, promising to lower the VAT from 20% to 5.5% on energy ” in a sustainable way, not checks, not ration tickets”. And, from the very first minutes, it drew up an inventory of its measures, which it would finance by hunting “expenses which [lui] appear expensive or harmful” or by “money that actually gets away” – without saying that it targets immigration and social fraud.
One by one, Emmanuel Macron dismantled the main promises of his opponent. He boasted his energy shield “twice as effective as the reduction in VAT”although related to the crisis: “I assume not to subsidize gas and oil that we don’t produce, but rather to spend public money to help households renovate their homes or change vehicles. » Marine Le Pen retorted: “Who pays him, Mr. Macron? They are the taxpayers. » “But like the reduction in VAT”he opposed it.
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