Be on top.

Since her failed debate between the two presidential rounds of 2017, Marine Le Pen has had only one obsession: not to suffer the same humiliation in the face of Emmanuel Macron in 2022. Thus, everything has been done so that this unmissable face-to-face between the two finalists in the presidential election, broadcast on Wednesday April 20 at 9 p.m. on France 24, is a success.

Arrived five years ago ill-prepared and tired for the televised debate after having multiplied the trips, Marine Le Pen learned from her mistakes.

No event is on the agenda of the candidate of the National Rally (RN) on Tuesday, who indicated on Monday that she intended to prepare at home, in her office, "in a completely normal way", for this passage. obligated to the presidential election since 1974.

>> To see: "Le Pen-Macron: two visions of the world"

Marine Le Pen has, however, surrounded herself with her followers to prepare for the debate: according to Politico, are present alongside her campaign manager, Christophe Bay, her deputy and former right-hand man of Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, his director of cabinet Renaud Labaye, as well as Jordan Bardella, Sébastien Chenu and his special adviser Philippe Olivier.

The candidate also says she is "extremely serene" about her program.

Unlike 2017 when she had decided between the two rounds not to leave the euro zone, Marine Le Pen this time avoided a last-minute reversal and should attack Emmanuel Macron head-on on the question of the power of purchase, a theme she highlighted throughout the campaign.

An uncomfortable exercise for the outgoing president

Opposite, the issue is different for Emmanuel Macron.

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.

>> To read also: "Emmanuel Macron, the balance sheet"

Being the outgoing president is not always comfortable in this type of exercise.

In 1981, François Mitterrand described Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, then in post at the Élysée, as a "man of the passive".

More recently, in 2012, the famous anaphora of François Hollande, "Me, president", had enabled him to underline the many failures of the outgoing president who faced him, Nicolas Sarkozy.

If he seems to want to play down the event, the head of state continues, on Tuesday, to carefully prepare a debate which he says he takes "very seriously", he declared on Friday on franceinfo .

To help him, Emmanuel Macron is surrounded, according to Le Parisien, by the secretary general of the Élysée, Alexis Kohler, the Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie, the Minister for Overseas, Sébastien Lecornu, his adviser in communication, Clément Léonarduzzi, and his pen, Jonathan Guémas.

It will be for Emmanuel Macron to emphasize that he already wears the clothes of President of the Republic and everything that will allow him to strengthen his presidential stature against Marine Le Pen will be exploited.

He should therefore not hesitate to highlight the role he tried to play in the Ukrainian crisis, while recalling the links between the far-right candidate and Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Convince the voters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon

Emmanuel Macron will also have to use this debate to convince a left-wing electorate not yet sure to make the effort to vote for him against Marine Le Pen.

While Jean-Luc Mélenchon obtained nearly 22% of the votes in the first round of the presidential election, a majority of his most loyal supporters placed the blank or null vote at the top (37.65%) of the consultation on the second round. led by La France insoumise last week, ahead of the Macron vote (33.4%) and abstention (29%) – the Le Pen vote not having been proposed.

The two candidates have so far faced each other from a distance.

Emmanuel Macron refused to participate in any debate before the first round.

The RN accused him of "fleeing" the discussion.

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

While the latest Ipsos-Sopra Steria poll gives 56% of voting intentions in favor of Emmanuel Macron against 44% for Marine Le Pen, can their television confrontation change the situation?

Response Wednesday evening.

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