D-1 before the big duel between the two towers.

The two finalists in the presidential election are devoting themselves this Tuesday to the preparation of their televised debate the next day, an appointment that Marine Le Pen had completely missed five years ago against an Emmanuel Macron who will this time have a balance sheet to defend.

"For me, a failure is sometimes a kick in the butt," confided on TF1 the candidate of the National Rally who claims to have learned the lessons of 2017 when she arrived ill-prepared and tired for the debate between -two turns after having multiplied the movements.

A tight second set

Five years later, no event appears this Tuesday on the agenda of the far-right candidate.

While those around her had indicated that she was going to retire to the West, she said Monday that she was going to prepare at home, in her office, this obligatory passage of the presidential election since 1974.

Five days before the second round, the RN candidate, who has focused her campaign on the issue of purchasing power, says she is "extremely serene".

Compared to 2017, when Emmanuel Macron had largely won (66% to 34%), the context has changed: the polls predict a tighter result, even if the outgoing president is given the winner within a range of 53 to 55, 5%.

And this time he will have to defend the results of his five-year term against the attacks of his rival who denounces "a form of deep contempt for the French" on the part of the Head of State.

A “crucial debate”

The duel on Wednesday at 9 p.m., refereed by journalists Léa Salamé and Gilles Bouleau, is all the more expected since the outgoing president did not participate in any debate before the first round, the RN accusing him of "fleeing" the discussion .

The Head of State replied that none of his predecessors in office had taken part in the exercise.

Discreet before the first round, he himself changed gear after his qualification on April 10, chaining trips, walkabouts and interviews for a week.

"Madame Le Pen has prepared a lot for this debate" but "an in-between rounds lasts a fortnight, not just an evening", he declared on FranceInfo on Friday.

If he seems to want to play down the event, Emmanuel Macron will continue this Tuesday to carefully prepare a debate that he says he takes "very seriously".

“C” is a crucial debate, the challenge of which, for me, is that the consequences of the two possible choices appear clearly”, affirms his ally François Bayrou, in an interview with La République des Pyrénées.

Several supporters of Emmanuel Macron sounded the alarm on Monday against those who would be tempted to shun the ballot boxes on Sunday, believing that the betting was already done.

Even if the opinion polls are favorable to him, the candidate Macron is also not immune to a misstep and a mobilization of anti-macronists around Marine Le Pen.

Objective: the rebels

During the campaign, the two adversaries have so far faced each other from a distance, going blow for blow.

On Monday, the RN candidate once again attacked the president-candidate who "chosen a form of brutality, excess, which was not useful".

“But it actually hides the emptiness of his project,” she added.

The outgoing president replied Monday evening on France 5 that "not much has changed" since "the sad anniversary of April 21, 2002" and the qualification of Jean-Marie Le Pen for the second round.

"It's a family, a clan which, for eight presidential elections, defends the same ideas".

In this home stretch, the two candidates are also trying to seduce the supporters of the rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came third in the first round with nearly 22% of the vote, just behind the candidate of the National Rally, and who called immediately not to give "a single voice" to the extreme right.

He must speak on BFMTV on Tuesday at the end of the afternoon, after the consultation carried out with his supporters for the second round, where the blank or null vote came first with 37.65% ahead of the Macron vote ( 33.4%) and abstention (29%), support for Marine Le Pen not having been proposed.

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Presidential 2022: Léa Salamé and Gilles Bouleau will lead the debate between the two rounds

  • Elections

  • Presidential election 2022

  • Marine Le Pen

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • Debate

  • Television