The French presidential debate

We were brave enough to submit ourselves to the grueling 2 hours and 45 minutes French presidential debate this past Wednesday between Macron and Le Pen.

In spite of the mental strain, were glad we did stick to it until the bitter end. We don’t know much about the real or perceived French issues at the moment; we have just a cursory idea of what the main ones are, and we sailed through the duel between the current president and his opponent just as we had done it five years ago. 

This was almost a replay of the same debate in which Marine Le Pen performed terribly, clearly lost it in the end, and killed her chances to win the election. This year was quite different. 

From the get go, Marine Le Pen adopted a pleasant demeanor, spoke simply and clearly, stayed totally composed and her controlled behavior made Emmanuel Macron tense and nervous as we saw through his body language and some of his rude and macho responses as he tried to regain control. 

In the last hour he recovered some of his cool, but by then we felt that his opponent won the debate. This said, if we lived in France, we would never vote for Le Pen, but would reluctantly support Macron. Of the two though, Le Pen is the one I’d prefer enjoy having a beer with. 

I still hope Macron wins Sunday’s contest because Marine Le Pen is more likely to follow the example of Donald Trump, and this I can’t recommend.