In a nutshell, Miss Le Pen was less stellar than one might have hoped, and M. Macron was substantially better than what one would have expected after his very weak performance in the previous 3 debates (the ones aired before the first round of the election).
Despite this, she appeared, to an objective observer, to pull slightly ahead : she delivered the best punch lines ("I am the candidate of purchasing power [for the people], you are the candidate of the power to buy off everything" (sounds better in French) ; "I know you're fond of it, but the whole student-teacher relationship isn't my thing" [a jab at Macron's marriage to his grad school teacher, 25 years older than he is]), appeared overall much more sincere, and even more importantly, she seemed less preoccupied with technical details and more focused on providing a broad vision of what governing a sovereign state means.
It is true I have no love for M. Macron, but I'm trying to be objective here : it was a close, nasty debate, and one could argue there was no clear winner.
BUT... but : today's newspapers and television shows were a madhouse of pro-macron triumphalism. "Brilliant performance..." ; "5 reasons why Macron won" ; "Le Pen's 19 lies during the debate" were among the headlines of the dominant newspapers. In short, the media are reconstructing the debate by smoothing away Macron's weak moments (sometimes very weak moments), overplaying Le Pen's inaccuracies (of which they were several), and more generally insisting Macron was "cool and collected" while Ms Le Pen was "hysterically agressive", something totally at odds with the way the debate truly unfolded, with M. Macron more than once appearing to lose his temper and overall looking more hysterical, more feminine even, than his rival.
In short, no matter what people think they saw, the media know better, and have already proclaimed Macron an easy winner.
France has dark times ahead with such a corrupt, inexperienced wimp ; but it is true that the French will also get what they deserve, since they will vote for this fraud with both hands.
Perspective from a native French :
In a nutshell, Miss Le Pen was less stellar than one might have hoped, and M. Macron was substantially better than what one would have expected after his very weak performance in the previous 3 debates (the ones aired before the first round of the election).
Despite this, she appeared, to an objective observer, to pull slightly ahead : she delivered the best punch lines ("I am the candidate of purchasing power [for the people], you are the candidate of the power to buy off everything" (sounds better in French) ; "I know you're fond of it, but the whole student-teacher relationship isn't my thing" [a jab at Macron's marriage to his grad school teacher, 25 years older than he is]), appeared overall much more sincere, and even more importantly, she seemed less preoccupied with technical details and more focused on providing a broad vision of what governing a sovereign state means.
It is true I have no love for M. Macron, but I'm trying to be objective here : it was a close, nasty debate, and one could argue there was no clear winner.
BUT... but : today's newspapers and television shows were a madhouse of pro-macron triumphalism. "Brilliant performance..." ; "5 reasons why Macron won" ; "Le Pen's 19 lies during the debate" were among the headlines of the dominant newspapers. In short, the media are reconstructing the debate by smoothing away Macron's weak moments (sometimes very weak moments), overplaying Le Pen's inaccuracies (of which they were several), and more generally insisting Macron was "cool and collected" while Ms Le Pen was "hysterically agressive", something totally at odds with the way the debate truly unfolded, with M. Macron more than once appearing to lose his temper and overall looking more hysterical, more feminine even, than his rival.
In short, no matter what people think they saw, the media know better, and have already proclaimed Macron an easy winner.
France has dark times ahead with such a corrupt, inexperienced wimp ; but it is true that the French will also get what they deserve, since they will vote for this fraud with both hands.