A few days before the first round of legislative elections, Gabriel Attal, Jordan Bardella and Manuel Bompard defended their respective programs during a televised debate during which subjects such as purchasing power, taxes, immigration are discussed. , dual nationals, among others.
Gabriel Attal, Jordan Bardella and Manuel Bompard argued about dual nationality, the defense of purchasing power or pensions Tuesday evening on TF1, while the far right is leading the polls five days before the first round of legislative elections presented as historic.
“We can act for purchasing power”, immediately launched the president of the National Rally, who made this subject his hobby horse, notably with a promise of an immediate reduction in VAT to 5.5% on fuel, electricity and gas.
“How much does it cost and how do you finance it?”replied the Prime Minister, posing as a defender of budgetary seriousness for this first major televised confrontation between the three blocs, in the home stretch of this lightning campaign.
“I don’t want to make them believe in the moon”added Gabriel Attal, proposing for his part measures to “earn more and spend less”.
The coordinator of La France insoumise, Manuel Bompard, sent his two opponents back to the ropes, ironically accusing Jordan Bardella, “the future Prime Minister of purchasing power”having “little by little abandoned all the measures to respond to it”. “You have gorged the richest in this country”, he added, targeting Gabriel Attal and calling for an increase in the minimum wage and salaries.
The three men also clashed on the subject of pensions, Mr. Bardella and Mr. Bompard wishing to return to the reform raising the legal retirement age to 64 years. But the exchange turned into a barely audible skirmish, with Mr. Bardella mentioning a possible departure at 66 for a Frenchman who started working at 24.
About the abolition of income tax for those under 30, which the leader of the far right wants to put in place by “the end” of his possible lease at Matignon, Gabriel Attal questioned his 28-year-old opponent: “Are you going to exempt yourself from taxes?” “Why would a 31-year-old worker pay taxes and a 29-year-old consultant or trader stop paying taxes?”he attacked again.
And, the day after the proposal by the leader of the far right to prevent dual nationals from occupying certain positions considered strategic, Gabriel Attal estimated that “3.5 million dual-national French people felt insulted and humiliated.”
The boss of the RN, to the Prime Minister: “You want to put a Franco-Russian in charge of a nuclear power plant?” Gabriel Attal then recalled that his opponent had a Franco-Russian as advisor to the European Parliament. “who attends meetings (where confidential information about the war in Ukraine is discussed”).
Withdrawals in the face of the RN?
After its success in the European elections, the RN dominates the first round polls, with 36% of voting intentions according to an Ifop-Fiducial poll for LCI, Le Figaro and Sud Radio, and can cherish the ambition of accession to historic power . It is ahead of the left-wing coalition New Popular Front (28.5%) and the presidential camp (21%).
Nothing, so far, has seemed to break the dynamic of the RN candidate for the post of Prime Minister: neither the vagueness of his camp around pensions, nor his stated refusal to be appointed to Matignon if he does not obtain absolute majority at the end of the second round on July 7.
And Mr. Bardella’s competitors are still looking for a solution to the possibility of seeing the far right come to power.
Some 200 socialist, environmentalist and macronist personalities called in Le Monde for the right, the center and the left to “clearly display now” a withdrawal agreement with a view to the second round.
“We will see on a case by case basis,” replied Manon Aubry (LFI), questioned on Sud Radio about the withdrawals of LFI candidates coming in third position. The Macronists are also procrastinating: the leaders of the presidential camp discussed on Tuesday the “campaign strategy” and seemed to be moving towards a slogan of “neither RN nor LFI” in the second round of the legislative elections, even if Emmanuel Macron has not yet decided.
In the magazine Challenges, the former socialist minister and former director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dominique Strauss-Kahn, retired from political life, called for “eliminate the far-right candidate” in the second round, even if it means voting for LFI “while holding your nose”.
But the Insoumis are also mired in quarrels with its former executives – Alexis Corbière, Raquel Garrido, Danielle Simonnet – accused of improperly using the party logo during the campaign. On Tuesday, the courts of Paris and Bobigny declared themselves incompetent to determine whether the dissident candidates were within their rights.
