By Michel Roos
PARIS (Reuters) – French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal accused his far-right and left-wing political opponents of “promising the moon” in a three-way televised debate on Tuesday ahead of next Sunday’s first round of early parliamentary elections.
In a muddled, confusing TV debate between the leaders of the three highest polling stations, Attal came under pressure from his far-right opponent. Jordan Bardellawho repeatedly interrupted him and accused him of “lecturing” and a lack of credibility.
“The difference between my competitors and me is that as Prime Minister I do not want to lie to the French. I don’t want to promise them a moon,” Attal said in the 90-minute debate that produced no major policy. announcements.
Opinion polls show the far-right National Rally (RN) winning the elections in two rounds on June 30 and July 7, but without an absolute majority, and possibly sharing power with the centrist president. Emmanuel Macronwho surprised the country by calling early elections earlier this month.
Bardella, who cast himself as a potential “prime minister for purchasing power”, started the debate by painting the picture of an electricity bill that he said was worrying millions of people and reiterated his pledge to cut VAT on power and fuel.
He and Attal exchanged views on the flagship cost of living proposal, with the prime minister repeatedly asking him to explain how he would finance a measure that he said would cost significantly more than Bardella’s €12 billion estimate.
But Bardella hit back, saying Attal, who is leading the campaign for Macron’s camp, had no credibility on public finances.
“I hear you, Mr Attal, lecturing us on budget discipline, despite the fact that you now have the largest debt in the eurozone and have created a government deficit of 5.4 percent,” he said, adding that France is now in is in crisis. state of “almost bankrupt”.
But Bardella, the 28-year-old who led Marine Le Pen’s successful campaign for the European Parliament elections earlier this month, also came under fire.
The candidate for the left-wing alliance New Popular Front, Manuel Bompard, accused him of watering down and dropping expensive populist measures as he moved closer to a possible takeover.
“The truth is that over the last 10 days, little by little, he has abandoned all the cost-of-living measures in his manifesto,” he said.
Bardella, who has pledged to lower the minimum retirement age to 60 for those who started working before the age of 20, was also pressed to clarify what he would do for someone whose career started at 24.
He said that person could retire at the age of 66, the first time he mentioned such a high age, which caused a lot of reaction on social media.
Bardella’s proposal to exempt income tax for under-30s was also mocked by Attal, who said there was no point in exempting wealthy young professionals such as one of France’s biggest football stars, who was signed up this month by the Spanish top club Real Madrid. .
“Kylian Mbappe was wrong when he went to Madrid. He should have stayed here because with you he would have stopped paying taxes,” Attal said.
(Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by David Gregorio)