Last update on March 21, 2017 at 10:52 Paris time: According to a poll published after the debate by Elabe for BFMTV, Emmanuel Macron was considered the most convincing of the five candidates by 29% of debate viewers, ahead of Jean-Luc Mélenchon (20%), Marine Le Pen and François Fillon (19% each) and Benoît Hamon (only 11%).
According to the Elabe post-debate poll, for 30% of the debate viewers, Macron had the best project for France, ahead of Fillon (20%), Le Pen (19%), Mélenchon (16%) and Hamon (14%).
Macron was also seen as the one with the best qualities to become president by 31%, clearly ahead of Fillon (24%), Le Pen (17%), Mélenchon (15%) and Hamon (11%).
With Le Pen almost surely qualified for the second round by the polls since the beginning of the 2017 presidential polling, it was in the interest of all other candidates to attack Macron, the young and fresh candidate with no party behind him, just his newly created movement. However, in the eyes of the public, Macron came even out first of the debate and, therefore, will not implode on the last meters of the campaign.
Fillon, the candidate polling third with 17% of voter intention, but long behind Macron with 26% (latest poll by Kantar Sofres-Onepoint before the debate), looked to me even weaker than the 19% of favorable debate impressions. Those viewers must simply be the hard-core Fillon voters.
In short, Macron président!
The first French presidential debate began with a statesmanlike, opening statement by François Fillon, who had the decency to remind viewers that of the 11 presidential candidates only the five top-polling were invited and that he himself would not be here if, in the Republican primary, only the leaders would have been invited.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon said that France would leave Nato under him. Emmanuel Macron reminded viewers of his biography as a candidate attached to no party. Marine Le Pen said she wanted to become the President of the French Republic, not vice-chancellor under Madame Merkel. France first, French identity and values were among Le Pen’s priorities.
Benoît Hamon wants to be honest and just. He is against the old recipes, which are not working.
Fillon said that he wanted to put emphasis on the primary school, for children to learn the basics they often don’t master anymore. Teachers should be paid more, but work longer. Macron put also emphasis on the fundamental knowledge of children, which many were lacking according to him. He wants classes of 12 pupils. The school should offer the equality of chances. Mélenchon wants 60,000 more and better paid teachers (said a journalist). Mélenchon attacked Fillon (looking at him), for having been one to have reduced the number of teachers in the past 10 years. Marine Le Pen attacked Fillon too.
Hamon wants smaller classes, better preparation for the teachers, classes with pupils from all social strata (mixité sociale) in college.
Marine Le Pen reminds viewers of the number of policemen reduced under Sarkozy (Fillon was his prime minister), she wants better equipment (weapons) for the police, she wants harsher, more serious sentences for criminals. Fillon says that more policemen is not the one solution and reminds viewers of France’s public debt. He wants more efficient sentences and more prison places, but unlike Marine Le Pen, who is promising 40,000, which is unrealistic, according to Fillon, he wants to build 16,000 prison places. Hamon wants 5,000 people of the community police (police de proximité). Hamon is against racial police controls, and better paid police. Mélenchon wants a better financial police against fiscal fraud, which he judges more important. Macron wants a police of daily security (community police) to fight petty crime. To fight petty crime, Fillon wants to lower the legal age from 18 to 16 and at the same time more reinsertion efforts. Macron and Mélenchon differ. Le Pen wants to strip parents from social aid if they lacked attention to their children. Hamon says that that’s not a serious measure. Hamon wants to put emphasis not on a lower legal age, but to make sure that people who have their sentence behind them will be less dangerous.
Macron wants to send illegal immigrants back to their country of origin. He wants decisions about the refugee status to be taken within 6 months. He wants a rigorous regime, but at the same time make sure that more refugees will be welcome, because France is not honoring its engagements taken on the EU level. Fillon says that he is strongly opposed to Macron. According to Fillon, most people who came with the last wave of migration or not political refugees. Hamon says that the percentage of foreigners in France is stable since the 1930s. Hamon says, from 100 immigrants in the world, only 4 come to Europe, and of those 4, 3 got to Germany and 0.5 to Sweden, the rest gets divided up by the rest of Europe. Hamon implies that France does not have an illegal immigrant problem. Mélenchon says that we can end the wars.
Marine Le Pen says that she wants to end the legal and illegal immigration. She says that France has 7 million of unemployed and 9 million of poor people.
Macron: Laicité that’s what protects, for instance children and school, that you can believe what you like without any pressure or that you can not believe. Mélenchon reminds viewers of the many people who don’t believe. Mélenchon says that 60% of all French do not practice any religion. According to a 2011 poll by IFOP, 56% of the French say that they believe in God. That means that only 44% do not believe in God. Nevertheless, that’s an important group. Mélenchon says that they also have to be respected too. Mélenchon says that secularism means for him the separation between state and church. Hamon agrees with Macron and Mélenchon. Marine Le Pen says that the principle of secularism has been challenged by radical Islam, she is against any form of communitarianism. Marine Le Pen challenges Macron regarding the burkini. She even wanted to ban the headscarf in the public sphere. Macron rightly says that the burkini ban has nothing to do with secularism. Macron says that she falls into the trap of those who want to divide French society. Mélenchon says that you can not have a fashion police in the streets. Fillon says that Muslims themselves are against the rise of Muslim integrism.
Mélenchon wants a new constitution, he wants to “abolish the presidential monarchy”. Marine Le Pen thinks on the contrary that the Fifth Republic is working well, but she wants the introduction of a popular referendum, which can be requested by 500,000 people. Macron says that his mouvement is new and benefits of no subsidies, that his campaign is financed by individuals, who give between 1 euro to 7500 euro, and that the average donation to his campaign is 50 euro, no company is giving money to him. Hamon is trying to be picky with Macron. How can he assure that lobbyist he give more money will not influence his decisions? Macron says that he is not prisoner of any donator.
Mélenchon (rightly) takes on the journalist who said in her question that the affairs of some have polluted the election campaign. He said that only two candidates were affected by affairs: Fillon and Le Pen. Marine Le Pen says that some candidates are representing large economic groups (an attack on Macron and Fillon). She is alleging that those candidates are not free in their decisions. Macron has worked as a banker for Rothschild before. He is one of the few leading politicians to have had a “real” job before. Macron rightly said that the French justice was independent and that, if Marine Le Pen had something in her hands, that she give it to the justice system to investigate. Macron also said that the fight against conflicts of interests was necessary.
Beauty items at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Fillon rightly says that France has not succeeded in her fight against unemployment in the past 25 years, whereas other countries such as Germany have found a solution. Fillon says that Mélenchon will surely attack him on the low-paid jobs in Germany, but there are no Germans flocking to France to profit from the marvelous French system. Fillon wants to give the companies the liberty to negotiate the work time contracts they want. Macron does not want to abolish the 35h working week (hmm…), but he wants to be pragmatic, he wants more flexibility and liberty. The different sectors of the economy and the different companies should decide what is best for them. Macron wants lower taxes and lower social contributions to be paid by the companies. Fillon and Macron are economically more liberal than the rest of the field. Hamon and Mélenchon have the idea that there is a sort of fix amount of work available, which has to be distributed among all workers. Hamon rightly reminds Fillon that he has been prime minister during five years without great results. Less convincingly, Hamon says that Fillon wants people to work longer without paying them more. That would be catastrophic according to Hamon. Hamon does not seem to understand that France needs a higher productivity, and longer working hours are one way of achieving that goal. Hamon wants people to work less, and at the same time, he wants to lower the employer’s contributions (that last point would make sense). Mélenchon says that working hours have lowered by 50% since the beginning of the century (he means the year 1900, not 2000). Mélenchon wants to create jobs by investing 100 billion euro in the economy of the future, by ending the reliance on nuclear energy and moving over to renewable energies. He wants overtime hours to be paid higher. Later, he said that people should work less, get their pension earlier.
Hamon said that the only innovating idea of the electoral campaign was his idea of a universal revenue from the age 18 until retirement, meaning money for everybody without having to work. Marine Le Pen calls Fillon and Macron the “ultra-liberals”. She champions an economic protectionism, she wants to tax products that enter France. Europe is not moving in the right direction according to her. She wants to protect France from countries where workers are paid less. For Macron, Hamon’s universal income proposal would mean higher taxes, which he considers neither reasonable nor realistic.
Fillon accuses Le Pen to be a “true serial killer” when it comes to French purchasing power, that she is about to bring “real economic and social chaos” to France.
According to Hamon, Trump and Russia increase the world’s instability. Europe needs a European defense cooperation to replace the protection once provided by the United States, which may no longer be ready to provide such as protection. After the Brexit, France is the only EU country with the full range of military powers, according to Hamon. Marine Le Pen wants to increase French military spending to 3% of GDP by the end of her presidential mandate. Mélenchon wants to be the president of peace. He does not want to fight wars at the side of the United States. Mélenchon says that the collapse of the Soviet Union is the cause of the present day instability. He says the the Russians and the Baltic States have had conflicts for 1000 years. Mélenchon wants France to keep away from the Baltic States; he said that he wants France out of Nato. Regarding the Crimea, Fillon said: “We have ourselves modified borders. For instance in Kosovo.” Regarding the fight against the so-called Islamic State (terror organization), French politics have failed. “We have left the liberty of action to Russia and Iran, whereas we could lead the fight together with those nations.” Regarding Trump, Fillon said that the new U.S. president is “unpredictable” and, therefore, France should take on her duties (prendre ses responsabilités).
Marine Le Pen accuses Emmanuel Macron of not saying anything: “Mr. Macron, you have been speaking for seven minutes, and you have not said anything.” She said that he was not taking clear decisions. The camera showed some other candidates. Fillon and others were very pleased about the statement by Le Pen. Macron fought back, explaining where he disagreed with Marine Le Pen.
Fillon says that he is the only candidate of true change (alternance), and that he has the will to make it happen. Hamon says that he is the candidate of the useful vote (vote utile). Explaining why voting for him is useful, he said for instance that he wants Europe to be liberated from austerity (although France has so far not followed a policy of austerity at all). Marine Le Pen said: “Savage globalization has been a nightmare for you. You must find the protection of the nation.” Mélenchon wants to free the French from an “oligarchy and presidential monarchy.” Macron presents himself as the man of reconciliation in a country divided by fears. He offers a positive, optimistic vision. In his eyes, France has the energy and the courage of the French people to move forward.
There were of course many more things said during the first French presidential debate.
Beauty items at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Article added on March 20, 2017 at 20:45 Paris time: In roughly 15-minutes, the first French presidential debate 2017 will begin. The five candidates leading in the polls to face off are namely Marine Le Pen from the extreme-right Front National, Emmanuel Macron representing no party, but his own movement On Marche !, François Fillon from the center-right Les Republicans, Benoît Hamon from the center-left Socialist Party (PS) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon from the far-left Unsubmissive France (La France Insoumise).
In November 2016, former prime minister François Fillon looked like the next French president, before Penelopegate and other affairs caught up with him. Before the primaries of Les Republicains, fellow former prime minister and current mayor of the thriving city of Bordeaux seemed to be unbeatable and, therefore, posed to become the next French president. Currently, the hot favorite is Emmanuel Macron, a former minister of the economy of current President Hollande. However, since he is young and new, his base is not solidified yet
The extreme-right candidate Marine Le Pen is leading in the polls, but only for the first round. In the second round she would surely loose to both Emmanuel Macron and François Fillon; unlike the Brexit and the Trump election, there has never been any doubt in the polls about this outcome. Only a last-minute major scandal and/or terror attack could maybe reverse this outcome.
If, on the extreme left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Benoît Hamon would form an alliance and have only the better placed of them going into to first round of the presidential election, the candidate of the left would have a chance of ending up in the second round. In that case however, it would not be so sure who would end up winning the presidential election Jean-Luc Mélenchon/Benoît Hamon or Marine Le Pen.
Luckily, Mélenchon, a former Socialist Party member, never got over the fact that President Hollande (and others in the PS) never took him seriously and never offered him a ministerial job. Therefore, it would be a great pleasure for Mélenchon to sink the Socialist Party by becoming the leading force on the left, although with no chance of making it to the second round on May 7, 2017.
Furthermore, Mélenchon and Hamon are currently polling both at around 12%. Therefore, it would be unclear anyway who is the better placed candidate.
The first round of the French presidential election will take place on April 23, 2017. Until then, a lot can still happen. A major terror attack, an unexpected scandal, a terrible debate performance by a candidate. In addition, half of the French voters indicate that they are still undecided; this is in particular a handicap for Emmanuel Macron, whereas 75% of Marine Le Pen sympathizers say that they are sure to vote for her.
However, until this first French presidential debate, the two clear leaders to make it into the May 7 runoff-election are Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, both polling currently at 26% of voter intention, clearly ahead of François Fillon with 17% and Benoît Hamon and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, both polling at 12% (Kantar Sofres-Onepoint poll published today, March 20, 2017).
Beauty items at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Emmanuel Macron in April 2015. Photo Copyright © Claude Truong-Ngoc. Photo added on September 6, 2020.
Article added on March 20, 2017 at 21:27 Paris time. Last update on March 21, 2017 at 10:52 Paris time.
