The two candidates clashed for the first time this Thursday evening during a rough debate on TF1 and LCI. Between a few rare substantive elements on Europe, pensions or nuclear power, the two contenders for the Elysée have engaged in a verbal one-upmanship in terms of immigration and security.
A boxing match expected in both camps. A month to the day before the first round of the presidential election, two candidates, both in the running to win their place in the second round, engaged in their first cathodic duel, this Thursday evening, on TF1 then LCI. On the right, in the entourage of Valérie Pécresse, we hoped for an oxygen balloon after weeks marked by serious difficulties. The president of the Ile-de-France region, more comfortable in televised contests than in campaign meetings, relied on this first duel to stand out from her opponent.
Facing her, Eric Zemmour, who is falling in the polls to the benefit, in particular, of Marine Le Pen, was counting on this debate to send the right-wing candidate back to her inconsistencies and her “progressivism”. Understand: his supposed proximity to Emmanuel Macron. “Madame Pécresse, it’s Madame 8:02 p.m.launched the far-right candidate. At 8:02 p.m., she will call to vote Emmanuel Macron. Because it’s the same.”
“junk Gaullist”
The hour of debate was summed up in this singular confrontation, where each of the two candidates sought to stand out not so much on programmatic elements but on his ability to embody a credible alternative to the outgoing president. The war in Ukraine thus offered the two candidates a privileged angle of attack. “Eric Zemmour is an ideologuelaunched Pécresse to his opponent. His ideology led him to be wrong about everything, about Vladimir Putin and his dangerousness. Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, on February 24, the former journalist has suffered from his claimed sympathies for the master of the Kremlin. A sensitive point on which the relatives of candidate LR have not failed to press in recent days.
“You will not pass me off as a Vladimir Putin man”tried to retort Zemmour. “You are just a junk Gaullist”, he added, recalling General de Gaulle’s positions vis-à-vis Stalin’s USSR. In this context of war at the gates of Europe, the positions of the contenders for the Elysée on NATO, whose integrated command de Gaulle had decided to leave in 1966, revealed new lines of fracture, on the left as to the right.
“I am faithful to the Christian tradition”
On the subject of immigration, during exchanges sometimes turning into cacophony, the candidate of Reconquête! tried to dismiss contender LR over their inability to enforce their proposals. “You are just a technocrat, a manager. Politics escapes you”, he launched. Thus Ukrainian refugees: “As soon as there is a war, you will welcome all migrants wherever they come from”attacked Zemmour. “I am faithful to the Christian and humanist tradition of France” on asylum seekers, replied the former minister of Nicolas Sarkozy. The candidate tried to demonstrate the inconsistency of the policy “zero immigration” advocated by the far-right candidate. And collected, along the way, “well then…” of the candidate, sending him back to his position as a TV debater, while Zemmour is still seeking to become president.
“You are an ideologue, you do not see the concrete, you do not see the reality”replied Pécresse, unfolding his tracks to control immigration – quotas, end of automatic ius soli, “evidence” assimilation, etc. “Everything is bogus with you Mrs. Pécresse in the fight against immigration”, she saw herself reply by a candidate falling back into his polemic ways, with a frozen smile and a nodding face.
Asked about “identity” from France – the quarter-hour exchange turning rather on the veil and Islam – the two candidates referred to their supposed acquaintances with radical Islam. “I do not confuse Islamism with Islam”assured Pécresse, praising his record in Ile-de-France in the fight against communitarianism. “Yes, Islam and Islamism are the same thing”, replied the nationalist and Maurrassian author. And the former journalist to bring out of the closet the alleged sympathies of relatives of Pécresse towards “Islamists”, like Tariq Ramadan, before accusing him of being outright “a collaborator of Islamism”.
“Right-wing progressive”
On economic subjects – pensions, unemployment insurance, industry – but also nuclear power or ecological transition, candidate LR was able to stand out with specific arguments. More biting than during these last media appearances, Pécresse wanted to stand out clearly from his opponent, imprecise and vague in his remarks. “Madame Pécresse is part of this government elite who sold off French industry”, he however tried, a way of presenting himself as a neophyte candidate ignorant of the codes of politics. The two applicants, on this last part of the program, accusing each other of having “copied and pasted” their respective measures – postponement of the legal retirement age, reduction in “expenses” for companies… – in neighbor’s program.
For Zemmour, on these fields which he considers secondary in relation to his obsession with “great replacement”the objective was Thursday evening, as for the weeks to come, to send Pécresse back like a “right-wing progressive”. Thus debt or public expenditure. “There is a gap between Emmanuel Macron and me”, defended the candidate. Response from Zemmour: “No, you are the same!”