BBC Online :
French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron appeared to cement his position as the front-runner after his clash with far-right rival Marine Le Pen in Wednesday evening’s final TV debate.
French pundits, newspapers and a highly regarded viewers’ poll all declared the centrist candidate the most convincing. The candidates traded insults for more than two hours, arguing over terrorism, the economy, and Europe. The second round run-off between the pair takes place on Sunday.
Both candidates were hoping to make an impression on the estimated 18% of undecided voters in the first election the country has ever held without a candidate from the two traditional mainstream parties.
The French broadcaster BFMTV found viewers had a more favourable view of Mr Macron than Ms Le Pen in most categories. He was the “most convincing” of the pair in the opinion of 63% of those interviewed.
The major French newspapers broadly agree in their Thursday morning editorials.
Mr Macron enjoys a healthy lead in the opinion polls. But during the key debate, Ms Le Pen lambasted him on his record as economy minister in the Socialist government – a post he quit to form his En Marche! movement.
The National Front candidate accused him of being “the candidate of savage globalisation” and said his version of France “is a trading room, where it will be everyone fighting for themselves”.
In turn, Mr Macron said Ms Le Pen had openly lied, proposed nothing, and exaggerated the concerns of the public. “The high priestess of fear is sitting before me,” he said. On unemployment, which stands at around 10% nationally, Mr Macron acknowledged that the country had not tackled the problem – and Ms Le Pen asked why he had not handled it during his recent time as economy minister.
She also accused him of complacency about the threat of radical Islamist terrorism. “Security and terrorism are major issues that are completely missing from your programme,” she said.
French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron appeared to cement his position as the front-runner after his clash with far-right rival Marine Le Pen in Wednesday evening’s final TV debate.
French pundits, newspapers and a highly regarded viewers’ poll all declared the centrist candidate the most convincing. The candidates traded insults for more than two hours, arguing over terrorism, the economy, and Europe. The second round run-off between the pair takes place on Sunday.
Both candidates were hoping to make an impression on the estimated 18% of undecided voters in the first election the country has ever held without a candidate from the two traditional mainstream parties.
The French broadcaster BFMTV found viewers had a more favourable view of Mr Macron than Ms Le Pen in most categories. He was the “most convincing” of the pair in the opinion of 63% of those interviewed.
The major French newspapers broadly agree in their Thursday morning editorials.
Mr Macron enjoys a healthy lead in the opinion polls. But during the key debate, Ms Le Pen lambasted him on his record as economy minister in the Socialist government – a post he quit to form his En Marche! movement.
The National Front candidate accused him of being “the candidate of savage globalisation” and said his version of France “is a trading room, where it will be everyone fighting for themselves”.
In turn, Mr Macron said Ms Le Pen had openly lied, proposed nothing, and exaggerated the concerns of the public. “The high priestess of fear is sitting before me,” he said. On unemployment, which stands at around 10% nationally, Mr Macron acknowledged that the country had not tackled the problem – and Ms Le Pen asked why he had not handled it during his recent time as economy minister.
She also accused him of complacency about the threat of radical Islamist terrorism. “Security and terrorism are major issues that are completely missing from your programme,” she said.
