French Presidential Candidate TV Debate Public Opinion: "59% of Respondents Find Macron More Persuasive Than Le Pen"

Emmanuel Macron (right), the En Marche candidate who advanced to the French presidential runoff, and Marine Le Pen, the National Front candidate. (Photo by EPA Yonhap)

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] In the one-on-one debate between French President Emmanuel Macron, who is seeking re-election, and Marine Le Pen, the candidate from the National Rally (RN) opposing him, President Macron was evaluated as more persuasive.

According to a poll released on the 21st (local time) by polling agency Elabe, 59% of respondents said President Macron was more persuasive, 20 percentage points higher than Le Pen's 39%.

Elabe conducted an urgent online survey targeting 650 voters aged 18 and over who watched the debate on TV with BFM broadcasting immediately after the debate ended the previous night.

Among voters who supported Jean-Luc M?lenchon, the far-left candidate from La France Insoumise (LFI) who ranked third in the first round of voting, 61% said President Macron was more persuasive. In contrast, 36% of M?lenchon supporters said Le Pen was more persuasive.

M?lenchon’s vote share in the first round was only 1.2 percentage points behind Le Pen’s. Therefore, who absorbs the votes of those who supported him in the second round is expected to determine the outcome of this presidential election.

It is unlikely that these voters will choose Le Pen, who is politically at the opposite end of the spectrum from M?lenchon. However, they also do not necessarily want President Macron, who is seen as closer to the right, to succeed in his re-election.

Therefore, from President Macron’s perspective, it is crucial to absorb the votes of M?lenchon supporters in the second round, while Le Pen benefits if M?lenchon supporters either abstain from voting or cast invalid ballots.

Local media such as Radio France reported that M?lenchon supporters said there were no issues after the debate that attracted the attention of left-leaning voters, such as environmental concerns.

Although climate change response was brought up as a debate topic at the table where President Macron and Le Pen faced each other, the discussion did not reach a deep level.

Instead, President Macron and Le Pen accused each other, calling one another a “climate skeptic” and a “climate hypocrite.”

In the survey conducted by Elabe, President Macron was rated as the “most arrogant candidate” (50%) and the “most dynamic candidate” (49%), while Le Pen was rated as the “most worrying candidate” (50%).

During Le Pen’s speech, President Macron occasionally gave an impression of arrogance by resting his chin on his hand or frowning, and repeatedly interrupted her while she was speaking, offering unsolicited advice.

Le Pen appeared more composed and sophisticated than in the 2017 debate, where she seemed flustered, showing appreciation for Macron’s diplomatic efforts, but she was not considered to have made a significant impact among voters.

Audience measurement agency M?diam?trie reported, as covered by daily Le Monde and others, that about 15.6 million people watched the nearly three-hour-long debate.

This figure is 900,000 fewer viewers than the 16.5 million who watched the first-ever presidential runoff debate between Macron and Le Pen in 2017.

However, this number does not include those who watched the debate on video platforms such as YouTube and Twitch.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.