PARIS – Marine Le Pen’s hoped-for redemption began with a false start. She launched into the opening speech of her head-to-head presidential debate with Emmanuel Macron too early, while the opening sequence of the programme was playing. The presenters had to interrupt the far-right leader to inform her that her first words had been drowned out by the programme jingle. Embarrassed, she began her statement again. Her opponent smiled at the faux pas, raising his eyes skywards.
It was not a good opening for Le Pen, whose team had been briefing that she was well prepared and confident of winning, five years after a disastrous performance in a debate against Macron before the second round of voting in the last French presidential election. Yesterday (20 April), having been slipping in the polls from a high of 49 per cent just before this year’s first round on 10 April down to around 44-46 per cent, Le Pen needed a turnaround to gain momentum.
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