PARIS (Parliament Politics Magazine) – French presidential election 2022: The day after the debate between the two rounds, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen return to the field this Thursday, April 21, 2022 to continue to convince, while the results of the polls show the Head of State as the favourite of the 2nd round.
The Essentials
- D-3 before the second round of the 2022 presidential election. Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen are entering the home stretch of their campaign between the two rounds, while the French are called upon to elect the next president of the Republic Sunday.
- Less than 48 hours from the official end of the campaign, the two candidates are on the ground this Thursday: in Saint-Denis for the Head of State, in Hauts-de-France for the deputy of Pas-de- Calais. Debate on different issues: for Emmanuel Macron the question of housing, for Marine Le Pen that, once again, of purchasing power.Â
- A return to contact with the French the day after an inter-round debate of nearly three hours, during which the two opponents defended their agenda and tried to point out the faults of the other. Exchanges which took place in a context much less virulent than in 2017 but which appears to have turned in favour of Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen having been thrown off balance on a certain number of subjects, some of which were subjects of his interest.Â
- The result of the poll carried out by Ipsos-Sopra Steria, published on Wednesday April 20 in Le Monde, credits Emmanuel Macron with 56% of the vote against 44% for Marine Le Pen, out of a panel of more than 7,500 people.
Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen on the move this Thursday: the program
The day after the debate between two rounds, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen return to the field this Thursday, April 21, 2022. The outgoing president will go to Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) at the start of the afternoon to raise the issue of “unsanitary housing and urban renewal.” For her part, the candidate of the National Rally will travel to Roye (Somme) at midday before heading to Arras (Pas-de-Calais) where she will hold a final meeting devoted to purchasing power.
Emmanuel Macron deemed the most convincing
According to a poll conducted by Elabe for BFM TV, Emmanuel Macron was considered the most convincing by 59% of people who watched the debate between the two rounds, against 39% for Marine Le Pen. The outgoing president excelled according to his supporters (97%), but was also deemed convincing by 61% of Jean-Luc MĂ©lenchon’s electorate. On the side of the RN candidate, 15% of her voters in the first round preferred the performance of the Head of State, as did 21% of those of Eric Zemmour. At LR, on the other hand, it is the division: 50% found Macron convincing, against 48% for Marine Le Pen.
A historically low audience for this between-two-round debate
Last night, the debate between the two candidates in the second round of the presidential election did not bring in the crowds. 14.05 million viewers watched the face-to-face on TF1 and France 2, and 15.6 million on all the channels that broadcast it, according to Médiamétrie. This is the worst audience for a debate between the two rounds of the presidential election. In 2017, the same poster brought together 16 million viewers across all channels, and one million more five years earlier.
Emmanuel Macron will make his speech from the Champ-de-Mars on Sunday
Whatever the outcome of the second round of the presidential election, the current president will deliver a speech after the results this Sunday evening. He stopped his choice on the 7th arrondissement, for a speech a few steps from the Eiffel Tower. Emmanuel Macron already wanted to be at the Champ-de-Mars during the second round of 2017, but the town hall of Paris having refused him, he had finally opted for the Louvre. Revenge taken, five years later but still it will be necessary to win over his rival Marine Le Pen.
The gap remains stable, according to a new poll
The OpinionWay -KĂ©a Partners barometer for Les Echos and Radio Classique gives 56% of voting intentions for Emmanuel Macron and 44% for Marine Le Pen. The sample considered was questioned after the inter-round debate which took place last night. The gap is the same as in the last OpinionWay poll before the debate. It therefore seems that the event did not really change the state of French opinion regarding this second round of the presidential election.
Marine le Pen is in the Somme, “alongside France which is working”
The candidate for the second round of the presidential election is this afternoon in the city of Roye, where she had come out ahead in the first round with more than 42% of the vote. She notably visited a truck stop there, and made a few statements to the press: “I am alongside France which works, and the least we can say is that the government is not making their life easier,” she said. She pledged to “remove anything that contributes to the collapse of entire sectors, which bear the full brunt of unfair competition”, castigating in particular the posted workers directive.
