In the party's internal power struggle, which feels like it's been raging forever and will continue for at least six more weeks, there was a moment that anticipated the duel.

In the first televised debate, with five candidates left in the running, Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, pointed a question at Liz Truss.

Jochen Buchsteiner

Political correspondent in London.

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He reminded the Conservative Foreign Secretary that she was once involved with the left-liberal Libdems and voted against Brexit six years ago.

He then asked her with his beaming smile, "What do you regret more?"

The knives have been unfurled in this battle for the leadership of the Conservative Party and the post of Prime Minister.

Everything is at stake for the two candidates who survived the relentless sieging of the faction.

Both know that this is their only chance of reaching the highest political office, and both suspect that they will not even have a future as ministers if the opponent wins.

Sunak describes himself as a "Thatcherist"

Unlike previous duels, of which there have been two more in the past six years alone, the outcome is uncertain.

Neither of the two left the faction with an overwhelming vote, and even though Sunak has 24 MPs behind him, he is met with greater skepticism at the party base, which can now decide until the beginning of September.

Sunak seeks to undermine what makes Truss popular with members: her no-nonsense and radical beliefs.

At the same time, he tries to slip into the role that he hopes will garner maximum grassroots approval: that he is the “true Tory”.

The morning after the fifth ballot, he published an article in the Daily Telegraph, following in the footsteps of the legendary Iron Lady.

"My values ​​are Thatcherist," he wrote.

“I believe in hard work, family and integrity.

I am a Thatcherist, stand as a Thatcherist and will rule as a Thatcherist.”

With a few brisk sentences, Sunak claimed what Truss had painstakingly built up as the core of the brand over the past few years.

She had worked so meticulously on her image as Thatcher 2.0 that some in Westminster rolled their eyes.

Whenever there was a need for an unequivocal opinion, Truss was there.

Left press mocks Truss

No one was more uncompromising in support of the small state, no one took a cooler stance against the EU, and no one was more resolute when it came to defending Ukraine against aggression from Moscow.

It is as if Liz Truss saw Margaret Thatcher as the personified absence of overtones.

The copy sometimes becomes unintentionally parodic.

In Estonia, she was photographed wearing earmuffs on a NATO tank, just like in the famous Thatcher photos.

For the first televised debate, she appeared in a blouse so reminiscent of Thatcher's tops from the 1980s that resourceful reporters from the archives were quick to prove it.

Truss has become the object of almost unlimited ridicule from political opponents, in the Labor Party and the left-wing press.

The Guardian columnist John Crace described her as an "ideologist without ideas".

Liz could hardly speak a simple sentence.

He ended his suada with the sentence: "The Tories must have a death wish."