Each side defends its champion, the others are bored

Attack on Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform or on the international credibility of Marine Le Pen: the lieutenants of the two candidates defended their champions on Wednesday during the televised debate, while elected LFI officials underlined the “deadly boredom” of the evening and a “mess”.

In Emmanuel Macron’s camp, the leader of LREM deputies Christophe Castaner criticized Marine Le Pen for wanting “Leaving Europe” with his proposal for a European alliance of nations. “We want to continue to build a strong France, in a strong Europe”he tweeted.

Minister Delegate for Industry Agnès Pannier-Runacher echoed Emmanuel Macron’s attacks on Marine Le Pen’s acquaintances with Russian power: ” Mrs Le Pen says she gives her full support to the Ukrainian people. In reality: she and her group in the European Parliament did not vote for financial aid to Ukraine or the new set of sanctions. And that’s normal, you shouldn’t offend your Russian banker”she said on Twitter.

Those close to Marine Le Pen have blasted Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to push back the legal retirement age to 64 or 65. According to Louis Aliot, vice-president of the RN, this measure “it means more accidents at work, more occupational diseases, therefore more expenses and dependencies to be expected for our compatriots. Broken and ruined, that’s how Macron likes the French”he launched on Twitter.

“Marine Le Pen is in real life, Macron is in McKinsey’s cosmos”said the spokesperson for the National Rally Julien Odoul.

Arrived third in the presidential election, the rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon regretted during this debate between two rounds a “mess” : “The country deserved better. Can’t wait for the third round »he reacted on Twitter, in reference to his appeal to voters to give him a majority in the legislative elections so that he can be “Prime Minister” of a cohabitation.

“If boredom were deadly, the Macron-Le Pen debate would be a cemetery”, denounced the president of the LFI group at the Assembly Mathilde Panot, on Twitter. His colleague deputy Adrien Quatennens retweeted the cover of an album of the Stiff Heads (neo-realist song) called “what are we pissing off”.

EELV MEP Karima Delli criticized Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen for being “off the ground” on ecology, while Sandine Rousseau attacked the “extreme right candidate” Marine Le Pen.

The boss of LR deputies Damien Abad saw “a clear difference in level and values” between the two, reaffirming that he would vote Emmanuel Macron on Sunday.

On the right wing of LR, the mayor of Chalon-sur-Saône Gilles Platret saw in this debate “the sufficiency against incompetence. France deserves better.

The sovereignist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (Debout la France), who called for a vote for Marine Le Pen in the second round, strongly criticized Emmanuel Macron on nuclear power: “destroy the nuclear sector with (François) Hollande, close Fessenheim, then plan the opening of 50 wind farms at sea which will disfigure our coasts… and Macron wants us to believe that he is favorable to nuclear power? »

In the party of Eric Zemmour (Reconquest), which also calls for voting for Le Pen, MEP and defector from RN Gilbert Collard regretted a discussion around 10:30 p.m. “lunar” :“People zap after 30 to 60 minutes of debate and we have heard nothing about McKinsey, little about yellow vests, nothing about deprivation of freedom, nothing about insecurity, about immigration…”themes discussed during the rest of the evening.