“Hey! I am here!” Jean-Luc Mélenchon tries to interrupt Marine Le Pen. Nothing to do. The Left Front candidate will get nothing but laughter from the audience. Marine Le Pen remains impassive, turned towards David Pujadas. On February 23, 2012, the National Front candidate announced live on the set of the France 2 talk show “Words and deeds” that she would refuse this debate imposed by the channel.
She explains: “It is clear that this debate was organized solely in a commercial logic. You are a bit like the Paul Amar of modern times. You could have given us pairs of boxing gloves,” she mocks, referring to the debate between her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and Bernard Tapie, on France 2 in 1994. “When you come across an opponent who is not complacent, it’s over, you’re no longer there ”replied the standard-bearer of the Left Front to him.
Between the two candidates, that evening, it was actually a war of positions that was being played out. Surprise guest of the leading quartet of this presidential election of 2012, Jean-Luc Mélenchon climbs in the polls and begins to dream of doubling Marine Le Pen, then given third. For the past few weeks, the tribune of the radical left has been attacking his rival in his meetings.
In the process of demonization with the National Front, Marine Le Pen wants to appear as a credible presidential candidate. Objective: to thwart the announced duel between Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande in the second round. No question, therefore, of offering a little light to those who bet on their fall to overtake it.
Very quickly that evening, the FN candidate belittled her opponent to the rank of “broom car” of the PS candidate. “I debate with real presidential candidates. Not with candidates for ministerial posts and who will call to vote in the second round for François Hollande, ”she thunders. She insists, again: “This debate does not make sense because you are not at all at the same electoral level as me. As I am in the top three, I would have liked to be able to debate with those whose place I could possibly take in the second round”, continues Marine Le Pen. “Where I am in the polls today is how your dad scored last time. Take me lower, please, because the surprise will be extreme for you soon, ”replies, piqued, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The radical left candidate is struggling to speak again. He gets annoyed: “This woman is going to talk like a mill for how long before she can talk?” Impossible to get her rival on board on substantive issues. “If I have to say it five times, I will say it five times, I do not intend to debate with Mr. Mélenchon”, supports Marine Le Pen. “Can I at least speak on my own?” Jean-Luc Mélenchon ended up asking, sparking new laughter in the audience.
Marine Le Pen’s few words to her opponent will simply be to remind her of her recent “violent” and “anti-republican” attacks. “This is how on January 18, during a press briefing in Metz, you called me ‘semi-demented'” she breathes. “That leaves you a good half” retorts his rival tit for tat. General hilarity in the audience.
And meager consolation prize for the candidate of the Left Front, who had planned to fight hard by pinning his opponent on his desire to “Abolish reimbursement by Social Security for voluntary termination of pregnancy”. He will not get an answer either on the FN’s promise to “refuse medical aid to foreigners”. “Madame Le Pen seems to have forgotten that the microbes that foreigners have ignore those who have papers and those who do not. Those who are on people who have no papers will go over those who have papers, ”he laughs, while his rival pretends to leaf through the newspapers spread out in front of her. Including a copy of La Voix du Nord titled: “One out of four Northerners tempted by the FN vote”.
Time flies and dialogue remains impossible. “It’s over for this debate which was not really one, but we will have tried”, regrets David Pujadas. “I am quite struck to see that you were able to commit yourself in the organization of this circus in full knowledge of the facts”, sighs Marine Le Pen. “In this circus, you are the clown,” concludes Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Two months later, the one who dreamed of going to the second round will finally close the podium (17.90%), while the one who dreamed of being the third man will finish fourth (11.10%). Far behind the finalists, Nicolas Sarkozy (27.18%) and François Hollande (28.63%). Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen will nevertheless meet a few weeks later, during the legislative election in the 11 constituency of Pas-de-Calais. Election that neither of them won.
