PARIS, April 21 (Reuters) – Here are the main quotes from the television debate between outgoing President Emmanuel Macron and the candidate of the National Rally Marine Le Pen, organized on Wednesday evening on TF1 and France 2, four days of the second round of the presidential election .
Opening remarks:
Marine Le Pen: “France’s greatest asset is its people. For five years I have seen them suffer, I have seen them worry, I would like to tell them that another choice is possible.”
“The absolute priority for the next five years is to give the French back their money, which would be equivalent to giving them back 150 euros per month per household”.
Emmanuel Macron: “I believe that our France will be stronger if it knows how to take up the ecological question (…) and become a great ecological power of the 21st century.”
The outgoing president wants to “make Europe stronger”.
War in Ukraine, links with Russia:
Emmanuel Macron: “You depend on Russian power, and you depend on Mr. Putin (…) You have taken out a loan from a Russian bank.”
“You don’t talk to other leaders, you talk to your banker when you talk to Russia, that’s the problem (…) You can’t properly defend the interests of France because your interests are linked to relatives of Russian power.”
Marine Le Pen: “What you say is wrong (…) I am a totally free woman.”
“Yes it’s true we are a poor party, it’s not dishonorable.”
European Union:
Emmanuel Macron: “Your project, when we put things back in place, it’s a project that doesn’t say its name but which consists of getting out of Europe (…). What you describe looks like a band part in your program.”
“You can decide to fix the facade on your own, but after all it’s a condominium. At some point in a condominium you can’t say overnight, ‘it must be as I decided because my name is Madame Le Pen'”.
Marine Le Pen: “You have a stunted vision of France.”
Debt :
Marine Le Pen: “You are the president who created 600 billion in additional debt, two-thirds of which have nothing to do with the Covid.”
Emmanuel Macron: “Stop confusing everything, it’s not possible!”
Marine Le Pen: “Mr. Macron, don’t give me a lesson”.
Emmanuel Macron: “I’m not giving you a lesson. I know the number by heart, don’t do it to me, Madame Le Pen.”
“The ‘whatever the odds’ Madame Le Pen, what would you have done?”
Marine Le Pen: “The Mozart of finance has a very bad balance sheet and an even worse social balance sheet.”
Ecology:
Emmanuel Macron: “Your program has neither head nor tail (…) You are climatosceptic.”
Marine Le Pen: “I am not absolutely climatosceptic but you, you are a bit climatohypocritical, moreover that is perhaps why people do not believe your desire to solve these problems (…) You are the worst in punitive ecology.”
Marine Le Pen accuses Emmanuel Macron of wanting to put wind turbines at sea “everywhere except in front of Le Touquet” [o Emmanuel
Macron vote et possde une maison avec son pouse-NDLR].
Numeric:
Marine Le Pen: “We have to create at European level (…) a European Google, and that at least we put in place the means to protect our data.”
Emmanuel Macron: “Who does not like Europe cannot develop digital champions.”
Milk:
Marine Le Pen: “I am for the banning of the veil in public space because I think it is a uniform imposed by the Islamists.”
Emmanuel Macron: “With me, there will be no ban on the headscarf, nor the yarmulke, nor any religious sign in the public space”.
“You will create civil war, I tell you in all sincerity.”
The president-candidate thinks that his opponent’s proposal is unconstitutional.
“You haven’t read my law,” replies Marine Le Pen.
“No, but I read the French Constitution excuse me”, replies Emmanuel Macron.
Conclusion :
Emmanuel Macron: “I fight your ideas, I fight the party which is yours, its history and its political positioning, but I respect you as a person, I respect and I want to convince all those who have been able to follow you.”
“We could see that we had sincere, respectable disagreements. This election is also a referendum for or against the European Union, and the link between France and Germany, a referendum for or against an ecological ambition (…), a referendum for or against secularism and fraternity in the Republic (…), and therefore a referendum for or against what we deeply are, where we come from, what we have To do.”
“On April 24, the choice must be clear”.
“Child protection will be at the heart of the next five years.”
Marine Le Pen :
“I would like to address the people (who) yearn for tranquility, for the return of common sense in the management of the affairs of the State (…) Common sense to prevent harm to predators from above, those who plunder our national jewels and do tax optimization, and then the predators from below, that is to say the delinquents and the criminals who harass the good people and rot their existence.
“This project is viable, it is even I believe it, vital, it is the one that I carry for the French, for all the French.” (Elizabeth Pineau, spoken by Sophie Louet)