Emmanuel Macron emerged from the television duel against Marine Le Pen with a slight advantage.

That was the unanimous verdict in the press on Thursday.

"Macron dominates, Le Pen withstands the shock," headlined the conservative "Le Figaro" and the left-wing "Libération" judged: "Le Pen still below standard".

"Le Monde" wrote on the front page "Macron on the offensive, Le Pen in retreat".

In the event of his re-election, the President now also knows where he wants to celebrate: at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on the Field of Mars and not at the Louvre as in 2017.

His campaign staff had long hesitated to talk about the minutes after the polls closed on Sunday.

After surviving the debate, these reservations have visibly disappeared.

Michael Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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Even though Marine Le Pen didn't go away with a KO like five years ago, Macron has confirmed his status as the favourite.

According to a survey by the opinion research institute Opinion Way, 41 percent of the French found Macron more convincing, and 31 percent said so for Le Pen.

27 percent said they were not convinced by either of them.

The opinion research institute Elabe found that 59 percent found Macron more convincing and 39 percent Le Pen. Only two percent were disappointed.

Le Pen criticizes Germany's "ideological mistakes".

For the first time since the European referendum in 2005, European politics played an important role from the very first hour of the television debate.

After the two candidates had exchanged quite politely about how the purchasing power of the French could be strengthened, Le Pen got down to business with ricochets against Germany.

The right-wing populist complained that she was not prepared to support Germany's "ideological mistakes" in energy policy and denounced the dependence on Russian natural gas.

Under her leadership, France should therefore leave the European electricity market.

Le Pen wants to demolish the existing wind farms and rely on nuclear power.

She accused Macron of only closing the nuclear power plant in Fessenheim to please the federal government and thus betray French interests.

Le Pen complained that the president did not understand how to defend France's interests in Brussels. As president, she will change that.

"You simply no longer say that you want to leave the EU, but actually nothing has changed in your program," Macron replied.

Le Pen gave free rein to her anti-German resentments.

"We sell German cars and sacrifice our breeders, we import Brazilian chickens," she claimed, referring to the free trade agreements agreed by the EU.

Macron reacted visibly irritated: "Which free trade agreement do you mean?" His posture spoke of a certain incredulity, which commentators interpreted as arrogance.

The President pointed out that France had opposed the Mercosur free trade agreement.

Le Pen accused him of smearing their project of a Europe of fatherlands with "conspiracy theories".

"It's quite seductive that you say something like that," Macron said smugly.