(Paris) Purchasing power, immigration: Jordan Bardella, whose far-right party is largely in the lead in the next legislative elections in France, appeared full of confidence Tuesday evening during a tense televised debate with the Prime Minister Macronist Gabriel Attal and a representative of the left, Manuel Bompard.
Calm and clearly better prepared than during a previous debate against Gabriel Attal a month ago, during the European campaign, Mr. Bardella clearly projected himself towards victory and the post of Prime Minister which will fall to him if his party wins an absolute majority in the Assembly, following the elections of June 30 and July 7.
“If I am prime minister in a few days…” he said when the debate was on immigration, the favorite theme of his party, the National Rally, and, he asserted, “ major subject that disrupts our identities”. “I will be the prime minister who restores authority,” he promised.
Facing him, Emmanuel Macron’s prime minister, Gabriel Attal, replayed the role of the serious, credible and knowledgeable candidate, but without succeeding in shaking Mr. Bardella.
The two men clashed violently over the RN’s controversial proposal to ban French people with dual nationality from certain sensitive public positions.
Questioned by Mr. Attal about one of his Franco-Russian advisors in the European Parliament, Mr. Bardella dryly replied: “I hope you will quickly pack your boxes because you are not up to the level.”
As for Manuel Bompard, candidate of the radical left but representing the New Popular Front alliance with the ecologists and the socialists, he seemed relegated to the role of spectator of a duel between Messrs. Bardella and Attal.
“I’ll let you argue, I want to address the French,” he tried during this first major televised clash between the three blocs, in the home stretch of the legislative blitzkrieg.
The three men fought over purchasing power, pensions, security…
“We can act for purchasing power,” said Mr. Bardella, who has made this subject his hobby horse, notably with a promise to immediately reduce VAT to 5.5% on fuel and electricity. and gas.
“How much does it cost and how do you finance it? “, replied the Prime Minister, posing as a defender of budgetary seriousness.
Mr. Bompard insisted on the left’s program, promising an increase in the minimum wage, the repeal of the pension reform, the flagship text of Macron’s five-year term, and tax increases for the wealthiest French people.
After its success in the European elections, the RN dominates the first round polls, with 36% of voting intentions according to an IFOP poll, and can cherish the ambition of accession to historic power. It is ahead of the left-wing New Popular Front coalition (28.5%) and the presidential camp (21%).
Nothing, so far, has seemed to break his momentum towards the post of prime minister: neither the vagueness of his camp on the possible repeal of the pension reform, nor his stated refusal to be appointed to Matignon if he does not obtain an absolute majority at the end of the second round on July 7 – a “refusal of obstacle”, had tackled Gabriel Attal.
His camp appears to be the most weakened of the three competing blocs even in the event of an alliance with the Republicans (right) opposed to the RN (7 to 10%).
Can the television debate change the balance between the three blocs? “What debate? », squeaks a Macronist executive. “People have already chosen, it’s already crystallized. The debate is not going to change things. Maybe it can work on the abstainers” and “benefit us”, he still qualifies.
The outcome of the vote, between the specter of the first far-right government in the country’s history and a National Assembly dominated by three irreconcilable poles for a minimum of a year, worries in France and abroad one month before the Olympic Games from Paris.