French Presidential Election: Macron Bails on TV Debate as Marine Le Pen Gains Ground

Peter CaddleApril 5, 2022

As his main rival Marine Le Pen surges in the polls, Emmanuel Macron has bailed on a major debate featuring all other presidential election hopefuls.

Incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed that he will not be attending the Elysée 2022 debate this Tuesday, despite the fact that his main rival, right-leaning populist Marine Le Pen, has seen her polling numbers jump in recent days.

As a result of the decision, Macron will be the only candidate not to attend the debate hosted by broadcaster France 2, which will see other major players including Eric Zemmour, Valérie Pécresse, and Yannick Jadot duke it out for the hearts of the French public.

According to a report by Le Monde, the French president did not give a reason to the broadcaster for the refusal, though the publication also notes that those close to the president said the refusal was rooted in the fact that Macron has refused to do other similar events.

Macron’s refusal is despite the fact that the broadcaster seemingly organised the event around the incumbent candidate, asking him what date would suit him best, and even considered allowing him to send a representative from his campaign in his place.

Rival populist candidates Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour scraped together the necessary endorsements to run for the French presidency with little time to spare https://t.co/SJtklStZzm

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 3, 2022

However, while Macron sees fit to drop an opportunity to directly confront his would-be replacements, his main rival in the current race, Marine Le Pen, has seen a sudden rise in the polls in recent days, a remarkable change in fortune considering the candidate had previously struggled to obtain the necessary endorsements to run in the election in the first place.

The populist Rassemblement National politician has now hit an all-time high in the second round voting polls, and is now expected to post a result of around 48.5 per cent in a runoff with the current president after the first poll on April 10.

This puts Macron only a few percentage points ahead of his right-wing rival, and with his own polling experiencing a sudden downward trend, it appears as if there is everything to play for when voting booths open up on Sunday.

“With a high abstention rate, which is possible, and the level of hatred toward the president among some people, there could be a real surprise,” the New York Times reports university political science teacher Nicolas Tenzer as saying. “The idea that Le Pen wins is not impossible.”

Things are looking far less rosy for other candidates in the race, who are all looking less and less likely to make it past the first stage of voting.

Eric Zemmour, the other major populist candidate competing in the election, was at one point trading blows with Le Pen, with both candidates running on a very similar platform.

However, the candidate now finds himself trailing in the pack significantly, polling at less than half of Le Pen’s numbers according to a POLITICO aggregate poll.

Things aren’t looking much better for the main left-wing competitor in the race, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is also looking less and less likely to make it to the second round of the race, polling at only around 15 per cent of the electorate.

Despite this, Mélenchon has remained relatively confident that he will make it to the final round with Macron, saying that it is even possible that President Macron himself will be the major candidate not to make it to the second stage of the election.

“That will not happen, Macron-Le Pen,” Le Figaro reports the candidate as saying. “I think I have a very serious chance of getting there and that Mr. Macron would do well to ask himself if he is really certain that he will be there. Look at the curves.”