The political reactions to the debate on Wednesday between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron were not long in coming. If the two presidential finalists obviously received the support of their respective supporters, LFI’s statements were more expected because they were uncertain. And, following the duel, the elected Insoumis especially underlined “the deadly boredom” of the evening.
Arrived third in the presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon regretted a “mess. The country deserved better. Can’t wait for the third round, “he reacted, referring to his appeal to voters to give him a majority in the legislative elections so that he can be” Prime Minister “. “If boredom was deadly, the Macron-Le Pen debate would be a cemetery,” for her part denounced the president of the LFI group in the Assembly Mathilde Panot. His colleague deputy Adrien Quatennens retweeted the cover of an album by Les Têtes raides called What are we pissing off.
In Emmanuel Macron’s camp, the leader of LREM deputies Christophe Castaner criticized Marine Le Pen for wanting to “leave Europe”. Minister Delegate for Industry Agnès Pannier-Runacher resumed the attacks of the outgoing president on the subject of the acquaintances of the RN candidate with the Russian authorities: “Madame Le Pen says she gives her full and complete support to the Ukrainian people. In reality: she and her group in the European Parliament did not vote for financial aid to Ukraine, nor for the new set of sanctions. And that’s normal, you shouldn’t offend your Russian banker”.
Louis Aliot attacks Macron on pensions
Those close to Marine Le Pen have for their part castigated Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to push back the legal retirement age to 64 or 65. According to Louis Aliot, vice-president of the RN, this measure “is more accidents at work, more occupational diseases, therefore more expenses and dependencies to be expected for our compatriots. Broken and ruined, that’s how Macron loves the French,” he tweeted. “Marine Le Pen is in real life, Macron is in the cosmos of McKinsey”, further judged the spokesperson for RN Julien Odoul.
The two candidates, on the other hand, did not convince Karima Delli. The EELV MEP thus criticized Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen for being “off the ground” on ecology, while Sandrine Rousseau attacked the “extreme right candidate” Marine Le Pen.
Among the Republicans, the boss of deputies Damien Abad saw “a clear difference in level and values” between the two, reaffirming that he would vote Emmanuel Macron on Sunday. On the right wing of the party, the mayor of Chalon-sur-Saône Gilles Platret saw in this debate “the sufficiency against incompetence. France deserves better.
Gilbert Collard’s too quick criticisms
For his part, the sovereignist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, who called for a vote for Marine Le Pen, strongly criticized Emmanuel Macron on nuclear power: “destroy the nuclear industry with Holland, close Fessenheim, then plan the opening of 50 wind farms at sea that will disfigure our coasts… and Macron wants us to believe that he is in favor of nuclear power? “.
In Eric Zemmour’s party, which is also calling for a vote for Le Pen, MEP and RN defector Gilbert Collard regretted a “lunar” discussion around 10:30 p.m.: “People zap after 30 to 60 minutes of debate and we don’t heard nothing about McKinsey, little about the yellow vests, nothing about the deprivation of freedoms, nothing about insecurity, about immigration…”. However, these themes were addressed during the rest of the evening.