After the President of the Republic’s speech at the Sorbonne last week, the European campaign will experience further acceleration on Sunday, with the first debate bringing together the seven main leaders of the list. Jordan Bardella (RN), Valérie Hayer (Renaissance), Raphaël Glucksmann (PS-Place publique), Manon Aubry (LFI), Marie Toussaint (Les Écologists), François-Xavier Bellamy (LR) and Marion Maréchal (Reconquête!) will debate 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., guests of an RTL-Le Figaro-M6-Paris Première Grand Jury.
This is the first debate of this type in which Jordan Bardella is participating, after letting MEP Thierry Mariani and former Frontex boss Fabrice Leggeri represent the RN during two previous games, on April 10 and March 14. Four main themes will animate the discussions: “the economic war against China and the United States”, “the challenges of European defense”, “immigration and the protection of the continent’s borders”, and the “ecological challenge” .
Ultra favorite in the June 9 elections, the president of the National Rally is credited with 32% of voting intentions in an Elabe poll for La Tribune Sunday and BFMTV, far ahead of Valérie Hayer (16.5%). Taking a bite out of the latter’s electorate, Raphaël Glucksmann received 12% of voting intentions, ahead of Manon Aubry (8.5%), Marie Toussaint (8%), François-Xavier Bellamy (6.5%) and Marion Maréchal (5).
Jordan Bardella should be the preferred target of his challengers, who will be keen to flush out his supposed “contradictions” and “insufficiency”, in the words of Valérie Hayer’s entourage. It is up to him to show his solidity on substance, after having avoided questions from journalists during the presentation of his program on April 25. Already on Thursday, Jordan Bardella and Valérie Hayer faced off on BFMTV, the first coming out of the exercise without difficulty against a less seasoned candidate.
Voters “on the couch”
On the side of the Macronist candidate, we assure that she will seek less to “attack” her adversaries than to “valorize (her) project”. “The idea is to get to the bottom of it, to recall what we have done, to start moving forward on programmatic proposals,” explains those around him.
For campaign spokesperson Clément Beaune, the challenge for her is first of all to mobilize the base of Macronist voters. “We have to look for the pro-Europeans, who exist in this country, but who are, a little like Glucksmann, a lot on the sofa,” he assures.
With just over a month to go before the elections, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal entered the campaign more openly this week. After a trip to Agen on Saturday, where he praised the Europe of “solutions”, he will come to support Valérie Hayer during the second major meeting of the majority’s campaign, at the Mutualité on Tuesday. “I want him to get as involved as possible in the campaign by holding debates, meetings, going into the field. This is what I asked him, as also of the entire government,” explained Emmanuel Macron in an interview with La Tribune Sunday and to Provence.
On the left, the barbs could become more and more sharp, while the controversies follow one another in a frantic manner between the Mélenchonist candidate and Raphaël Glucksmann. The latest was launched by Manon Aubry, who accused out of elected.” “This is the method of all scoundrels like Trump. Raphaël Glucksmann has never received money from lobbies but from copyright, like many LFIs which sell books,” replied the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure on X.