He lasted, come on, half an hour before he started to show off his casualness. Was it, moreover, or rather arrogance, contempt, even boredom sometimes? Maybe a little of all that…or none at all. Nobody is in the head of Emmanuel Macron, but all those who watched the debate between the president-candidate and Marine Le Pen, Wednesday evening, did not fail to note his sometimes light attitude, leaning forward on his lectern, eyebrow arched or head resting on his fist, as if waiting to finally hear something interesting in what remains a major event in French democratic life. We even wondered, at one point, if he was not going to end up putting his feet on the table. His team may have feared it too, since they asked the show’s directors to do less on the cutaways, reported France Inter this Thursday morning. In vain.
The outgoing president on the offensive, a rarity
Was this the translation of his greater mastery of the files very quickly appeared, when one could expect a ball-in-head departure from Marine Le Pen on his so dear theme of purchasing power? Possible. “Sufficiency against incompetence”, commented the mayor of Chalon-sur-Saône Gilles Platret, one of the executives of LR. More alert to bounce back and put his opponent face to face with her contradictions, and ultimately more at ease, Emmanuel Macron did not hesitate to show an offensive face, on the attack against a Marine Le Pen on restraint . The opposite of what we imagined between an outgoing president and his challenger.
“It’s really surprising, Marine Le Pen did not know how to find it on its balance sheet, its liabilities. Yet there was plenty to do, observes political scientist Virginie Martin. She could have been easy on the management of the start of the Covid crisis with the masks, the “yellow vests” in the street every Saturday, McKinsey or her climate inaction. But she preferred to stay on her line, on her side of the field. “Leaving the field open to his opponent.
Le Pen winning by mirror effect?
The latter rushed into it, but by giving in to the facility, believes our expert. “He was very detached, and gave the impression of not having worked on the important subjects of democracy, of the far right,” she said. The moment was historic, considering that it has been three times that the RN has been in the 2nd round and that it fell twenty years after April 21. He could have recalled the Chirac-Le Pen debate which did not take place, the shock… There were other things to do than go back to Marine Le Pen’s loan from a foreign bank. »
Virginie Martin is severe with the president-candidate on his general attitude, which she describes as “I don’t care” and “unpleasant”. “We expect better from a head of state. And he missed an opportunity to reach out to the French, to show that he had heard the criticisms of his first five-year term, ”she adds. From this point of view, one can wonder if Emmanuel Macron did not leave a few feathers in the battle. The entourage of Marine Le Pen also clings to this branch this Thursday, ensuring that the sufficiency of the opponent has won the RN candidate by mirror effect.
Simple confirmation
Not really, answers Mathieu Gallard, research director at Ipsos. At least, not to the point of moving the lines in the polls. “This debate has only confirmed what the French were already thinking”, he asks, before detailing: “On the one hand, Marine Le Pen has real difficulties on the merits, she has not succeeded to put an end to this very ingrained perception of the RN’s incompetence, or in any case of inability to govern. On the other, the French think Emmanuel Macron capable of dealing with crises, of managing the country, even if he is not a personality they appreciate because of this arrogant side, distant from daily concerns. »
Some will therefore have been taken aback by what they saw on Wednesday, but not enough to scream surprise or counterfeiting either. “Some left-wing voters who hesitated between him and abstention may choose the second option because of that, but it will remain marginal,” adds Mathieu Gallard.
Leading the polls more and more pronounced as we advance in this between-two rounds, the outgoing president will certainly not have lost points on Wednesday – and that was his main objective. Perhaps it will be otherwise with its popularity, but that is not yet a topic. As for the debate, we should not forget the essential, recalls Virginie Martin: “In the end, we saw a discussion without vision, without going, without projection, without thickness. What will France look like in 2050? I didn’t hear a response. »