"The president has been debating with the French for five years. The most important thing is the debate with the French," he insisted on FranceInfo.
"I'm not sure that a 12-person debate around a table, sometimes with somewhat surprising things in each other's proposals, is the most useful exercise," he added.
Regarding the number of candidates, the final list will not be announced until Monday by the President of the Constitutional Council Laurent Fabius at 12:00 p.m. in a video.
The far left candidate Philippe Poutou however announced on Friday that he had the 500 sponsorships of elected officials required.
If this is validated, there will be 12 candidates on the starting line, as in 2017.
Regarding the debates before the first round, Olivier Dussopt assured that "the outgoing presidents who represented themselves did not generally lend themselves to this kind of exercise".
"When I hear the opposition say that there is no debate, they do not hesitate to exhaust it, and above all to show the greatest bad faith, and often the greatest excess in the About,” he continued.
He was referring to remarks made on Friday by the former president of LR and current boss of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region Laurent Wauquiez who had accused President Macron of being "both monarchical and dictator".
Before acknowledging later in a tweet that "the use, in the current context, of the term dictator was not appropriate".
"I withdraw it," he concluded.
"His words exceeded his thoughts", had confirmed the entourage of the candidate Valérie Pécresse.
Valérie Pécresse again asked candidate Macron on Friday to "come into the arena to debate" with his competitors, considering a televised debate "absolutely necessary".
On January 29, government spokesman Gabriel Attal declared himself "skeptical" about the usefulness of a debate before the first round of the presidential election for candidate Macron against rivals who, according to him, are setting up "a undead campaign".
© 2022 AFP