Macron, Le Pen Clash in Bad-Tempered French Pre-Election TV Showdown

Macron, Le Pen Clash in Bad-Tempered French Pre-Election TV Showdown
Candidates for the 2017 presidential election, Emmanuel Macron (R) and Marine Le Pen prior to the start of a live prime-time debate in the studios of French television station France 2, and French private station TF1 in La Plaine-Saint-Denis, near Paris, France on May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Feferberg/Pool
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PARIS—National Front candidate Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron clashed over their vision of France’s future and ways of handling terrorism in an ill-tempered televised debate on Wednesday ahead of Sunday’s run-off vote for the presidency.

The two went into the debate with opinion polls showing Macron, 39, maintaining a strong lead of 20 percentage points over the National Front’s Le Pen, 48, in what is widely seen as France’s most important election in decades.

For Le Pen, the debate, watched by millions, was a last major chance to persuade voters of the merits of her program which includes cracking down on illegal immigration and ditching the euro currency.

In angry exchanges, Le Pen played up Macron’s background as a former investment banker and economy minister, painting him as a continuation of the outgoing unpopular Socialist government and a backer of rampant globalization. He accused her of not offering solutions to problems such as France’s chronic unemployment.

But the sharpest exchange was over national security, a sensitive issue in a country where more than 230 people have been killed by radical Islamic terrorists since 2015.

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen (2ndL), French journalist Christophe Jakubyszyn (Rear 2ndR), French journalist Nathalie Saint-Cricq (R) and French presidential election candidate Emmanuel Macron (C) on the set prior to the start of a live broadcast televised debate in the studios of French public national television channel France 2, and French private channel TF1 in La Plaine-Saint-Denis, near Paris, France on May 3, 2017. (REUTERS/Eric Feferberg/Pool)
French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen (2ndL), French journalist Christophe Jakubyszyn (Rear 2ndR), French journalist Nathalie Saint-Cricq (R) and French presidential election candidate Emmanuel Macron (C) on the set prior to the start of a live broadcast televised debate in the studios of French public national television channel France 2, and French private channel TF1 in La Plaine-Saint-Denis, near Paris, France on May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Feferberg/Pool