The Attal-Bardell debate: Two visions of Europe and short sentences between accusations of “lies” and denials

Two weeks before European elections, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and National Assembly President Jordan Bardella clashed on their visions of Europe on Thursday night during a televised debate in which accusations of “lies” and abdication erupted from both sides.

In the presidential camp, they expect this duel to boost the sluggish campaign of the Renesansa list holder Valérie Hayer, who is stagnating at 15.5%-16.5% in voting intentions, well ahead of the RN list led by Jordan Bardella, who is at the peak of 33% in the Ifop-Fiducial survey for Le Figaro, LCI and Sud Radio broadcast on Thursday.

In another alarming sign for President Emmanuel Macron – who refuses to “nationalize” the June 9 election – Raphaël Glucksmann’s PS-Place publice list is clearly narrowing the gap with that of the president of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament.

Gabriel Attal did not stop Thursday night on France 2 to defend the “vision” of Valérie Hayer, but the absence of the candidate inspired Jordan Bardella to think ironically. He described the head of government as an “arsonist”, attributing to him a disastrous record for France, according to him, and as “a fireman who comes to the aid of your candidate”.

Invited by the head of state to further engage in a high-risk election campaign in the opinion of several Macronists, Gabriel Attal, who is aware of the political dangers of overexposure, tried not to deny the reputation of the “weapon against Bardella” distilled by the Elysée.

He worked to embarrass his opponent on European energy policy – particularly nuclear energy, which he accused him of “talking nonsense” -, on immigration and the “smoky” concept of the RN’s “double border”, as and on the ties with Russia of the party co-founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen.

The prime minister, who noted the inaccuracies of his opponent, also sought to refer Jordan Bardella to the contradictions and reversals of the RN on community issues, especially the project of exiting the euro that has now been abandoned, and multiplied the criticism of his presence and his votes in the European Parliament : “I’m not like you to change my mind about everything.”

The European representative responded in the same register, taking offense at the lack of “elegance” and “caricature” of the prime minister, and declared him responsible for the results of Emmanuel Macron, who “for seven years has been splitting the power of ‘buying the French.’

Jordan Bardella accused the European executive of selling out French economic interests and called for the establishment of “economic patriotism”.

He further felt that the government had failed to fight irregular immigration and was imposing “de facto immigration” with the European Migration Pact.

In addition to the European elections, the war of succession for the presidential elections in 2027 between Gabriel Attal (35) and the announced successor Marine Le Pen (28) began in this debate.

The two candidates will each win points for their camp, without removing the uncertainty surrounding the June 9 vote.

20:15 – The showdown begins.

20:17 – Jordan Bardella declares that “project” and “estimate” are at odds. He attacks Emmanuel Macron, who “has been eroding the purchasing power of the French for seven years”. “I want a Europe that assumes economic patriotism.”

20:19 – Gabriel Attal believes that the issue of the June 9 election concerns the election for the future: “Will we be stronger if we are more united or if we are isolated, turning inward?”

20:20 – The holder of the RN list is worried about “the risk of France disappearing on the European and international scene”. He intends to move from “free trade to fair trade” at the economic level, citing commercial competition from China and the United States. “We must put an end to the age of naivety.”

20:23 – “Europe is prosperity,” says Gabriel Attal. She “won’t pay the bills”, retorts the interlocutor.

20:24 – The Prime Minister opposes the “national preference” desired by the RN, the risk of “cutting off the legs” of French companies: “How to solve the problem of French companies that have public contracts in other European countries. country?”

20:29 – European companies must be protected from “unfair competition from non-European companies”. “We have to introduce tariffs” when industrial sectors are threatened, says Jordan Bardella.

20:30 – “We must make Europe an energy paradise again,” adds the president of the RN, who accuses the French government of “weakening France’s nuclear policy.”

20:31 – “He talked nonsense about nuclear energy,” answers Gabriel Attal.

8.33 pm The Prime Minister is pushing for a reform of the electricity market – which will come into force in 2026 – which will “enable the French to reduce their energy bills”, which Jordan Bardella refutes. “You don’t read the laws of the community,” Gabriel Attal tells him, who accuses him of “lies.”

20:34 – I clearly recognize the Macronist talent to say everything and its opposite, says Jordan Bardella. “That’s better than the lies of Lepenism,” replies Gabriel Attal.

20:40 Gabriel Attal emphasizes that the European Union “must take responsibility” for the ecological transition. “This is the struggle of our generation,” he continues, adding to the RN candidate that “it is not enough to be young to embody hope.”

20:42 – “The climate challenge is one of the great challenges of our generation,” adds Jordan Bardella, for whom the EU’s “unrealistic environmental ambitions” threaten companies and individuals.

20:44 The RN candidate condemns the “dogmatic” policy which, according to him, endangers the national automobile industry (in particular he mentions the ban on the sale of new vehicles with heat engines until 2035).

20:46 – Gabriel Attal emphasizes the need to set long-term goals for “getting out of dependence on oil”. In 2030, two million electric vehicles will be produced in France, he specifies.

20:48 – The Prime Minister attacks the RN President, on the defensive, about the reversals of Marine Le Pen’s party on community issues: “What made you change your mind” about the euro, about Frexit, the European market. ..?

20:56 – “We have to stop putting our farmers in competition with products coming from the other side of the world,” declares Jordan Bardella, condemning CETA (a free trade agreement between the EU and Canada), Mercosur, which France opposes.

20:58 – You voted against the budget of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2019, replies the prime minister who defends the commercial advantages of CETA for the EU.

21:00 – “No mirror clause on factory farms, no mirror clause on traceability,” decries Jordan Bardella on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. “You are lying to the farmers Mr. Attal”.

9:02 p.m. – When I called you a liar earlier, you said I was rude – replies the prime minister.

21:04 Jordan Bardella condemns the European pact on migration, “immigration de fait accompli”. For you, “immigration is not a problem, it is a project”. He calls for a “migration tipping point”, believing that the French executive is unable to control illegal migration flows.

21:06 – “I agree to support the Asylum Immigration Pact” which will “make us much more effective” in dealing with irregular immigration. He considers the connection that, according to him, the extreme right established between immigration and crime “revolting”.

21:10 – Jordan Bardella, who assesses that the European border agency Frontex is a “hostess for migrants”, defends the principle of a “double border”, which, according to his party, will prevent the entry of illegal immigrants into the EU and guarantee free movement within the Schengen area only to citizens EU.

21:12 – Gabriel Attal says he has discovered contradictions and a feasibility problem in this “cloudy” concept of a “double border”. What about, for example, the daily monitoring of “half a million” French cross-border workers, he asks. “There’s a lot of promise, but when you scratch the surface, there’s nothing behind it.”

21:18 – Jordan Bardella says he is in favor of “labor immigration” to meet the “exact needs” of the French economy.

21:23 – Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, Jordan Bardella believes that Emmanuel Macron “added fuel to the fire” by talking about sending the army to Ukrainian territory. “The risk of escalation is high, I am not playing the role of the main European general,” he said, adding that the French president highlighted the “divisions” of the Western camp.

21:25 – Gabriel Attal refers his interlocutor to the “alliance of common interests” between Russia and the RN’s ancestor, the National Front, which benefited from Russian funding. “You have a moral contract with them, you are not free with your votes” in the European Parliament. “You are weak with the strong, and strong with the weak,” said the Prime Minister.

21:26 – “You are a caricature,” declares Jordan Bardella, condemning Emmanuel Macron’s “naivety” in relation to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “It was not Marine Le Pen who received Vladimir Putin at her resting place in Bregançon, but Emmanuel Macron,” he declared. The ‘popol’ you are making is a small debate.

21:31 – “Jordan Bardella spends his time explaining that he already won,” Gabriel Attal jokes at the end of the debate. Referring to the scenario of the dissolution of the French National Assembly, mentioned by Marine Le Pen, in the event of a failure of the presidential majority on June 9, he told the MEP: “You spend time talking about the assembly in which you were not elected until you are in the assembly in which you were elected”. “You hate Europe,” he claims.

9:34 p.m. – Asked what message he wants to send to young people, the RN president replies that he carries “the hope of a generation affected by fear of tomorrow, insecurity”. He invites the young electorate, whose “heart bleeds when they see the state of the country”, to go to the polls on June 9.
Gabriel Attal calls for a “responsible and hopeful vote”.