5
takeaways from French Right’s 2nd presidential debate
Frontrunner
Alain Juppé holds his own. None of other six comes through with
breakout performance.
By NICHOLAS
VINOCUR 11/4/16, 12:13 AM CET Updated 11/4/16, 2:23 AM CET
PARIS — Seven
French conservative presidential hopefuls faced off Thursday night in
a live television debate — a livelier, and at times nastier,
exchange than their first encounter last month.
Alain Juppé, a
former prime minister who polls say is cruising toward the nomination
in a party vote scheduled for later this month, came under sustained
attack. As expected, his rivals zeroed in on his acceptance of an
endorsement from a prominent centrist who backed President François
Hollande in 2012.
There were other
notable skirmishes too.
Former President
Nicolas Sarkozy fended off attacks on his legacy from Jean-François
Copé, a longtime ally who turned enemy amid a campaign finance
scandal.
Nathalie
Kosciusko-Morizet, her level of support in the single digits, went
after wildcard candidate Jean-Frédéric Poisson for having flirted
with the far-right National Front and accused U.S. democratic
candidate Hillary Clinton of being under the influence of Zionist
lobbies.
Overall, it was a
richer spectacle because candidates appeared more comfortable with
the debate format, a novelty for French conservatives. And in the
end, it was unlikely to change the dynamic of the race, with Juppé
holding steady in the face of the Sarkozy attack, while others failed
to deliver breakout performances.
Here are five
takeaways.
1. Alain Juppé
withstood Sarkozy’s charge
The first debate
centered on Sarkozy and his legal troubles. This time the focus
shifted to the frontrunner and the question of whether or not he was
a reliably conservative candidate.
Rivals led by
Sarkozy tried to knock out Juppé by accusing him of having “sold
out” by accepting the endorsement of François Bayrou, leader of
the centrist Modem party. Juppé responded that presidents had always
relied on support from other candidates to get elected. “In local
elections, we were always happy to receive support from François
Bayrou,” said the mayor of Bordeaux.
When Sarkozy twice
reiterated his point, Juppé displayed a rare flash of exasperation,
declaring that he was finished talking about Bayrou. But Bruno Le
Maire, 47, still managed to score a point against the 71-year-old
Juppé, arguing that electoral deals belonged to a bygone era of
politics, which voters wanted to leave behind.
For most of three
hour debate, Juppé maintained his statesmanlike poise. He shrugged
off interruptions with a smile and delivered his policy prescriptions
on security, terrorism and education with his signature precision.
Still, the attack on
his alleged lack of political principle may cut deeper than was
immediately apparent, especially with rank-and-file members of the
conservative Républicains party.
2. Sarkozy was in
better form, but failed to destabilize Juppé
The former
president’s aides must have issued a word of advice before he took
to the stage: Whatever you do up there, smile.
Tense and
miserable-looking at points during the last debate, Sarkozy this time
arranged his face into an amiable grin whenever he was not speaking,
and appeared more comfortable debating former underlings.
The charm offensive
did not deflect him from his core mission: depicting Juppé as a
“soft” conservative. In his repeated attacks, he showed the
aggressive focus that earned him a reputation as a political
pugilist. “François Bayrou never ceased … to vote against us,”
Sarkozy hammered when the exchange briefly veered away from Bayrou.
Others onstage did
not follow Sarkozy’s lead. Instead, Copé directed several stabs at
the ex-president over what he described as a failed legacy as
president, comparing him unfavorably to German Chancellor Angela
Merkel and her record of keeping unemployment low and fighting crime.
He also attacked Sarkozy’s foreign policy record, with a nod to
recent revelations about the ex-president’s ties to the government
of former Libyan strongman Muammar Ghadafi.
“Years and years
of hypocrisy led our country to be incapable of having a clear policy
in terms of immigration and especially on asylum law, given the
backdrop of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and, sadly, Libya,” said
Copé, former head of the conservative party.
Sarkozy tried to
swat away the assault by drawing attention to his own executive
experience, a tactic that he also deployed against Le Maire when told
he should not be seeking re-election.
The ex-president
certainly made the argument against Juppé that he had come to
deliver. But the charge crowded his speaking time, making him look
more focused on knocking down a rival than delivering his own recipe
for change. It was classic Sarkozy. Whether voters want to see any
more of it remains just as unlikely as it was before the debate.
3. Bruno Le Maire
improved. Fillon flatlined
Le Maire, who is
running third or fourth in opinion polls, had plenty to prove. His
last debate performance was panned, down to his decision not to wear
a tie when all other male candidates had worn one.
This time Le Maire,
sporting a blue tie, avoided tone-deaf flights of rhetoric. He came
out strongly, saying he wanted to be an “honest” president, in an
obvious dig at Sarkozy, and called for a renewal of the political
class. During a sequence on terrorism, he argued for new tools to
lock up potential attackers, and urged a total halt in foreign
funding for mosques in France.
He also made
mistakes. While arguing in favor of sending French troops to Syria,
he declared that France had sent soldiers to Libya. Juppé pointed
out that had not been the case, then cut the former agriculture
minister down to size on the issue of whether or not to keep speaking
to Gulf monarchies. Such questions required “seriousness,” said
the former foreign minister.
Le Maire improved on
his last debate performance. Not so ex-prime minister François
Fillon, who had impressed pundits with his calm and confident calls
for a shock to pull the French economy out of its doldrums.
At his best on
economic questions, Fillon drew effective comparisons between France,
Germany and Britain, arguing that the neighbors had performed better.
But his phlegmatic delivery confounded his backers’ advice: be more
empathetic, look at the camera, create a bond.
Expect more
jockeying between Le Maire and Fillon in the polls for the third
place prize. Don’t bet on either knocking out one of the
frontrunners.
4.
Kosciusko-Morizet’s moment
Unimpressive during
the first debate, the former energy minister showed plenty of ironic
verve this time around. She doggedly pursued Sarkozy over his record
on the environment during one tense exchange, forcing him to
acknowledge that a summit on ecology held early in his term had been
a mistake.
But her finest
moment was during an exchange with Jean-Frédéric Poisson of the
Christian Democrat Party, who had said he felt closer to
Marion-Maréchal Le Pen, youngest scion of the far-right dynasty,
than to Kosciusko-Morizet. “Jean-Frédéric Poisson recently
declared that he felt closer to Marion Maréchal-Le Pen than to me.
I’m honored by that,” she said.
As the only female
candidate in the debate, she also scored a point on the question of
parity. “Women are not ‘diversity’,” she said. “They are
half of humanity.”
Now comes the hard
part for Kosciusko-Morizet: transforming her performance into a
credible bid to win the primary. With her poll scores in the single
digits, that remains a long shot.
5. Europe? Not
invited
With seven
candidates onstage, the debate’s agenda was packed to the gills
with immigration, terrorism, security and education. The moderators
appeared to forget they had also planned a discussion on Europe —
arguably a crucial subject at a time when Britain is preparing to
leave the European Union, and the Euroskeptic Marine Le Pen is seen
breaking through to the presidential election’s runoff round.
Only Poisson
mentioned Europe in passing — to argue the bloc prevented France
from exercising its independence.
“The center-right
was once at the origin of the European project. Today, Europe no
longer exists on the Right — or only as a punching ball,” tweeted
essayist Raphael Glucksmann.
Authors:
Nicholas Vinocur
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário