Five days before the first round of the legislative elections, Gabriel Attal, Jordan Bardella and Manuel Bompard faced each other for almost two hours during a first televised debate.
Gabriel Attal, Jordan Bardella and Manuel Bompard met this Tuesday, June 25 in the evening on TF1 for a first televised debate just five days before the first round of the legislative elections.
While the National Rally is in the lead in the polls, the New Popular Front exceeds 25% of voting intentions. The presidential party is trying to get back on its feet after the failure of the European elections.
Purchasing power, energy, immigration, pensions… The three personalities addressed several major subjects at the heart of an early legislative campaign presented as historic.
• VAT, minimum wage, energy… Pass of arms on purchasing power
First subject of this debate: purchasing power. The three men presented their plan to increase the purchasing power of the French. Jordan Bardella, who assured that he would be, in the event of an absolute majority in the Assembly, “the Prime Minister of purchasing power”, pleaded for a return “to budgetary reason”.
Its flagship measure, the reduction in VAT on all energy products, came under criticism from Gabriel Attal. The Prime Minister deplored its cost which he estimated at 17 billion euros per year, compared to 12 billion euros according to the National Rally. “What the RN would give you with one hand, he would take back from you with the other,” he quipped.
Gabriel Attal, who said he “does not want to make the French believe in the Moon”, suggested lowering electricity prices by 15% “from next winter”. A measure contested by the rebellious manager who criticized him for having himself decided to increase it by 10% a few months earlier.
For his part, Manuel Bompard promised to block the price of a basket of basic necessities, as is already the case on the island of Reunion. Or the increase in the minimum wage to 1,600 euros. “One in six jobs will be eliminated,” Gabriel Attal told him. The coordinator of France Insoumise defended the “relaunch of popular consumption” to inject money “directly into the economy”.
• Pivotal age of 62 or 60 years: Bardella and Bompard present their retirement plan
Pension reform, a thorny subject which marked the start of 2023, is being called into question by representatives of the National Rally and the New Popular Front.
Manuel Bompard recalled that the left intended to reduce the legal retirement age to 60 years and 40 years of contributions. Initially, it would involve repealing the pension reform and returning to 62 years, then “before 2027, table a bill to reduce the retirement age to 60 years”.
“A person who starts working at 24 must be able to leave at 60,” he assured, while conceding that this worker would not have all his quarterly contributions.
In front of him, Jordan Bardella defined a “priority”: “long careers”. According to him, “the pension reform is an unjust reform on a social level and unjust on an economic level”. With 40 annuities, they will be able to retire at 60. But a French person who started working at 24 could retire at 66 after 42 years.
“I prefer to prioritize the French who started working very early,” he assumed.
Gabriel Attal declared that he was maintaining the pension reform, not wanting to “promise everything before the elections in the hope of being elected”. He announced that he wanted to “act massively for the employment of seniors” with “bonuses/penalties” for companies that lay off seniors.
• Disputes over nuclear power, Bardella wants a “moratorium” on wind projects
On the question of nuclear energy, the three political representatives affirmed their differences. Gabriel Attal welcomed the government’s plan “to relaunch nuclear power with 14 new reactors”. A government report strongly criticized by Jordan Bardella who accuses Emmanuel Macron of having “weakened” the French system.
In addition to the defense of nuclear power, the president of the RN defended a “moratorium on new wind projects”.
On the left, nuclear energy divides. Some, like the rebels, are against nuclear power. “We don’t all agree,” admitted Manuel Bompard. This is why he highlighted “parliamentary democracy” with a “law on energy which will be debated” if the New Popular Front obtained a majority in the Assembly.
“If you want to keep pace with climate change, you must massively reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, by 2035, by 2050,” he also chanted.
• Land law, binationals… Heated debate on immigration
Jordan Bardella renewed his proposal to abolish land rights and free healthcare for foreigners. According to him, his party “wishes that the acquisition of French nationality can no longer be automatic.”
“With Mélenchon Prime Minister, we are going to open the floodgates. I hope we will put a stop to this mass immigration,” he said in the direction of Manuel Bompard. The coordinator of France Insoumise replied that “we built France thanks to waves of immigration”.
Gabriel Attal, for his part, returned to Jordan Bardella’s proposal to ban “sensitive jobs” for dual nationals. “The message you are sending is that when we are binational, we are half-national, we would not be real French,” he lamented.
He then took the example of “two young girls he met”, one Franco-Moroccan and the other Franco-Armenian. “They told me to tell you that they felt insulted and humiliated,” said the Prime Minister.
“They really exist your…”, replied Jordan Bardella without finishing his answer before continuing with a question addressed to his opponent: “You want to put a Franco-Russian at the head of a nuclear power plant, that does not pose a problem for you. not a matter of national interest?”
