If only the big counted televised debate between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, aired on all French channels, the outgoing president would have already won the elections. For two and a half hours Macron kept his opponent out of the game, beating her even on the most slippery terrains, those of purchasing power and pensions, ridden by the far-right leader throughout the electoral campaign.
Purchasing power
Le Pen: let's lower the VAT on fuels
Marine Le Pen moved first, according to the draw organized by the editorial staff of the two host TVs, the private Tf1 and the public France 2. After the opening speech, Le Pen was called to answer precisely on purchasing power. And, as your program reads, you explained to the French that you wanted to give them back 12 billion euros, lowering the TVA, i.e. the VAT, on fuels, on electricity and gas from 20% to 5%. It would cost the state coffers 500 million euros, money that you want to recover by taxing companies that buy shares.
Macron's reply
An unjust, dangerous and harmful measure, Macron counterattacked. You would be unfair because you make no difference between the various wages ("we who are here would not even notice it"); dangerous because it would cost enormously to public finances (it represents 38% of France's tax bill); and harmful because it would block the ecological transition, prompting us to consume more fuel.
Macron instead defended the government's "tariff shield" which it will freeze the price of gas and electricity as long as the crisis persists, reducing energy bills by many hundreds of euros. “Without this shield – he explained – between 1 October 21 and 1 May 22 bills would have increased by 78,3%. If the VAT had been lowered, 66% of the increase would have remained”.
And here Macron dwelt on the series of system measures, as the Italian politicians would say, which he says will solve the purchasing power crisis: double aid to single mothers; re-indexing pensions on inflation and bringing the minimum to 1.100 euros; triple the production bonus by making it mandatory for companies that share the dividends; tax relief for the self-employed amounting to 550 euros per year.
Pensions
As for pensions, the positions have only apparently seemed very distant: it is true that Le Pen wants to keep them between 60 and 62 and Macron wants to raise them up to 65. However, both have resorted to nuances: she underlining that you need to have 40 years of contributions; he recalling that the measure must be completed in small steps.
The energy policy
The wind
On energy sources the distances were even stronger: Marine Le Pen wants to dismantle all wind turbines. The candidate has radicalized herself on the subject: in 2017 she wanted a moratorium, now she wants the dismantling of the entire wind farm, 9.000 structures.
How much further Macron, that wants to install another 50 wind farms at sea for a total power of 40 gigawatt hours, equal to 20% of electricity consumption in France. And it intends to double the land-based facilities to make up for the accumulated delay in dealing with the energy transition. And to Le Pen who reminded him that these structures are contested by all administrators, he conceded only that he won't make the decisions alone. Today wind produces 7,9% of French energy and according to the energy transition program it should produce between 25% and 50% by 2050. France also sells this energy in addition to nuclear energy, and at 200 euros per megawatt .
The nuclear
For both, nuclear energy needs to be reviewed and increased, but to see the new structures we will have to wait for 2035, as Macron pointed out.
Macron against Le Pen: "You are financed by a Russian bank"
The two contenders have not been mean to each other. Indeed, he has never called her an "extreme right" and she has not accused him of being "the president of the rich". The hardest one can be said to have been Macron: when reproached Le Pen for his relations of subjection to Putin, reminding her of the loan her party got from a Russian bank. The antagonist defended herself by arguing that in France she had not managed to obtain any and therefore she had turned abroad. Why she chose Russia in particular, she has not explained.
Le Pen on the war that Moscow unleashed in Kiev was clear: she spoke on the side of the Ukrainians, although not a word was used against Russia.
Macron against Le Pen: the Islamic veil
The second time Macron was tough was when we spoke of the veil and of Islam, an important issue for France due to the presence of millions of Muslims in the country. Le Pen wants to ban him from wearing it in public and therefore punish him with a fine, since he is "aggressive". This is also a way of fighting Islamism, he said.
But, Macron pointed out to her, the French Constitution guarantees everyone the freedom to express their opinions, including religious ones. Not to mention, he insisted, that it would then be necessary to prevent the wearing of the kippah or the cross: that is, all the distinctive signs of a religion, not just the Muslim one. And then Islamic terrorism is one thing, the religion of Islam is another thing: recognizing it means being truly secular.
The clash over the EU
Also the European Union it was a battleground: fiercely defended by Macron, dismantled in the Confederation of Nations by Le Pen.
The behavior of the two candidates
As for formal behavior, the clash was more calm than that of five years ago and very focused on programs. Macron was more tense, Le Pen more calm and composed. The outgoing president appeared far more competent with all the dossiers, but it's a characteristic of him, he seems to know them by heart.
The reasons for the change of the two are related to the context: the Marine challenger had to prove that she was presidential; the incumbent president had to defend not only his future project, but also his past five years.
The unknown of the second round
But will all this affect the elections next Sunday? How many mélenchonists will have been satisfied by Macron? And how many will continue to think that "everyone but him" and therefore will vote for Le Pen? And how many more will not vote for anything, because "there is no choice between plague and cholera"?
In short, last night the two contenders had only one purpose: to convince that they deserved the vote of those who chose Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round, the leader of the radical left. They're a big army, over 7 million. It is above all to them that they have turned: we will find out on Sunday who will have succeeded better.
