Four days before the runoff election for the presidency in France, Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron competed against each other in a TV debate.

There was a touch of déjà vu about the duel: the two had faced each other five years ago.

At that time, Le Pen experienced a fiasco, mixed up company names and nervously rummaged through her documents.

This time the exchange was more factual, at least at the beginning of the discussion.

Michael Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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Le Pen concentrated her first attacks on Germany, whose “ideological mistakes” in energy policy she no longer wanted to support.

She lamented Germany's dependency on Russian gas supplies, which is putting a strain on the European electricity market.

Le Pen stressed that under her leadership, France would leave the European electricity market.

For Macron, this was a great opportunity to point out the interdependencies within Europe.

He pointed out to Le Pen that France sometimes gets electricity from other EU countries.

But his challenger from the right wanted nothing to do with interdependence.

"Germany is defending its interests," said Le Pen. "Only France does not know how to assert its interests."

She gave free rein to her anti-German resentments.

"We sell German cars and sacrifice our farmers for it," she claimed, referring to the free trade agreements agreed by the EU.

“I want a Europe of fatherlands”

In Le Pen's view, there can be no such thing as European sovereignty.

"There is no European people," she said.

Again she complained about the European flag being hoisted under the Arc de Triomphe at the beginning of the French EU Council Presidency.

She claimed Macron had replaced the French tricolor with the European flag.

"I want a Europe of fatherlands," she said.

Macron used his reply to make a commitment to the "German-French couple" that he formed with Chancellor Angela Merkel "and is now continuing with Chancellor Scholz".

He recalled that France did not produce its own vaccine during the pandemic and the French benefited from EU solidarity in vaccine procurement.

The economic consequences of the pandemic have also been cushioned thanks to the EU recovery fund.

He is convinced that Europe is the answer to the challenges, whether in climate protection or in digitization.

Le Pen seems to him like someone who wants to change a club on his own and in this way puts himself on the sidelines.

"That's not how Europe works," he said.

Macron succeeded in demonstrating Le Pen's Russia policy.

In a surprising turn, Le Pen initially presented herself as a defender of Ukraine.

She said she supports sanctions against Russia, arms supplies and financial aid to Kyiv.

She specifically mentioned her former partner Louis Aliot, who, as mayor of Perpignan, had traveled to Poland by coach to offer Ukrainian refugees in the south of France a temporary home.

“They depend on the Kremlin ruler”

The only thing she rejects is the planned halt to Russian gas and oil supplies, Le Pen stressed. "We shouldn't commit hara-kiri to punish Russia," she said.

Macron reminded Le Pen that in 2014 she recognized the annexation of Crimea and the result of the referendum organized by Moscow.

In addition, in 2015 she took out a loan worth millions from a Russian-Czech bank, which made her dependent on Vladimir Putin.

"You depend on the Kremlin ruler," Macron reproached her.

Le Pen said she was "a free woman" but failed to dismiss the charge.

"We are a poor party," she said, admitting that the loan has still not been repaid.

Le Pen promised "economic patriotism" and accused Macron of a "very bad economic record".

"The Mozart of finance has a very bad record and an even worse social record," she said.

The retirement at 65 that Macron is planning is “unbearable”.

The positions were also irreconcilable when it came to climate protection policy and the question of budget restructuring.

Unlike five years ago, the debate did not descend into a riot, but it was project against project.

Did the TV duel make the undecided want to go to the polls on Sunday?

In any case, they cannot say they did not know how Le Pen and Macron plan to govern in the next five years.