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2022 FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Macron vs Le Pen: 5 things to watch out for in tonight’s live TV debate

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen go head-to-head in a live TV debate on Wednesday evening. At stake: the French presidency. Here's what to expect.

Macron vs Le Pen: 5 things to watch out for in tonight’s live TV debate
Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 election TV debate (Photo: Eric Feferberg / POOL / AFP)

Macron and Le Pen face off against one another in the now-traditional TV debate between candidates, which is screened live on multiple French TV channels from 9pm on Wednesday.

If you want to play a drinking game while watching, journalists at the French daily Libération have come up with this debate bingo card.

It’s a rerun of the 2017 debate, which was notably nasty – the French press described it as a ‘dirty debate’ the morning after. This one is likely to be a bit different.

READ ALSO The Macron v Le Pen debate: What happens?

Here are some of the things to watch out for;

A better-prepared Le Pen

In 2017, Marine Le Pen had what sports journalists would call ‘a nightmare’ in the second-round debate against Emmanuel Macron, a programme that was watched by some 16.5 million people in France. 

The day after the bruising two-and-a-half hour TV battle for hearts and votes, French media criticised Le Pen’s “permanent aggression” and found her “unconvincing” as she referred repeatedly to her notes and made a number of factual errors that Macron was quick to correct and turn to his advantage. 

He even got away with telling her to ‘stop being ridiculous’. She lost four points in the polls immediately after the debate, and was well beaten in the vote a few days later.

This time around she is expected to be much better prepared and will seek to portray herself as the ‘caring candidate’, concerned with the cost of living crisis and the ability of the French people to make ends meet. 

She has taken two days out of campaigning to prepare for what could be a campaign-defining moment. Macron, too, has been busy swotting up on his policy points and attack lines.

READ ALSO Le Pen’s plan to legalise discrimination against foreigners in France – including dual nationals

Flat questions from the journalists

If you’re hoping for a tough interrogation from the two journalist hosts, prepare to be disappointed – and not simply because France 2’s no-nonsense devourer of politician egos Anne-Sophie Lapix isn’t involved, after both Macron and Le Pen reportedly turned her down as a moderator.

Hosts Léa Salamé and Gilles Bouleau have a strictly constrained role. Their questions will deliberately be flat and as open as possible. They are, basically, there to set the ball rolling on each topic, and let the candidates at it. It is not their job to correct factual errors – that’s down to the other candidate. 

Macron has scheduled a one-on-one with Lapix the morning after the big debate, when she might actually be able to do a better job of quizzing him than if she had been on the debate itself.

READ ALSO OPINION: Macron will win the French election – and then his real problems begin

Topics

The debate will open with questions on the cost of living – considered to be a strong suit for challenger Le Pen. After disagreement over what to start the debate between the two parties – Macron wanted international affairs – the opening topic was decided on the drawing of lots.

Security and governance will close the debate, with international affairs – a strength for Macron – and climate issues, a weak point for Le Pen, both also on the agenda.

Le Pen will also speak first, having won another coin toss, while Macron will get the final word.

READ ALSO EXPLAINED: What are the key policy differences between Macron and Le Pen?

Careful candidates

The 2017 debate was about as brutal as primetime political TV gets. Macron and Le Pen wasted little time laying into each other’s policies and personalities.

Macron branded Le Pen a“hate-filled” liar who “fed off France’s misery” and would bring “civil war” to France.

Le Pen called Macron an arrogant, spoilt, cold-eyed, “smirking banker” intent on “butchering France” in favour of “big economic interests”.

There’s likely to be less of that this time. The consensus of opinion among political watchers in France is that this debate will be much calmer. Bad news for anyone hoping for a repeat of the explosive TV of five years ago.

A Macronism

Remember poudre de perlimpinpin from the 2017 debate? Or even le grand rabougrissement from earlier in this campaign?

Macron is quite well known for his use of unusual or archaic phrases when debating.

While there’s no guarantee of that this rime, expect a social media burst if either of them come up with something a little esoteric, while foreign correspondents will be scrabbling for the dictionary.

We will have the latest news, reactions and analysis of the debate on our homepage HERE from 9pm on Wednesday.

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POLITICS

French parliament backs bill against hair discrimination affecting black women

France's lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a bill forbidding workplace discrimination based on hair texture, which the draft law's backers say targets mostly black women wearing their hair naturally.

French parliament backs bill against hair discrimination affecting black women

Olivier Serva, an independent National Assembly deputy for the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe and the bill’s sponsor, said it would penalise any workplace discrimination based on “hair style, colour, length or texture”.

Similar laws exist in around 20 US states which have identified hair discrimination as an expression of racism.

In Britain, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has issued guidelines against hair discrimination in schools.

Serva, who is black, said women “of African descent” were often encouraged before job interviews to change their style of hair. Backers also say that men who wear their hair in styles like dreadlocks are also affected.

The bill was approved in the lower house National Assembly with 44 votes in favour and two against. It will now head to the upper Senate where the right has the majority and the vote’s outcome is much less certain.

‘Target of discrimination’

Serva, who also included discrimination suffered by blondes and redheads in his proposal, points to an American study stating that a quarter of black women polled said they had been ruled out for jobs because of how they wore their hair at the job interview.

Such statistics are hard to come by in France, which bans the compilation of personal data that mention a person’s race or ethnic background on the basis of the French Republic’s “universalist” principles.

The draft law does not, in fact, contain the term “racism”, noted Daphne Bedinade, a social anthropologist, saying the omission was problematic.

“To make this only about hair discrimination is to mask the problems of people whose hair makes them a target of discrimination, mostly black women,” she told Le Monde daily.

A black Air France air crew member in 2022 won a 10-year legal battle for the right to work with braided hair on flights after a decision by France’s highest appeals court.

While statistics are difficult to come by, high-profile people have faced online harassment because of their hairstyle.

In the political sphere they include former government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye, and Audrey Pulvar, a deputy mayor of Paris, whose afro look has attracted much negative comment online.

The bill’s critics say it is unnecessary, as discrimination based on looks is already banned by law.

“There is no legal void here,” said Eric Rocheblave, a lawyer specialising in labour law.

Calling any future law “symbolic”, Rocheblave said it would not be of much practical help when it came to proving discrimination in court.

Kenza Bel Kenadil, an influencer and self-proclaimed “activist against hair discrimination”, said a law would still send an important message.

“It would tell everybody that the law protects you in every way and lets you style your hair any way you want,” she said.

The influencer, who has 256,000 followers on Instagram, said she herself had been “forced” to tie her hair in a bun when she was working as a receptionist.

Her employers were “very clear”, she said. “It was, either you go home and fix your hair or you don’t come here to work”.

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