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Presidential: unemployment, debt, nuclear... We fact-checked the debate between Macron and Le Pen

2022-04-21T05:08:13.671Z


The president-candidate and his opponent RN, who had already opposed the second of the 2017 presidential elections, exchanged for nearly three


Return match.

Five years almost to the day after having debated in the middle of the presidential election, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen clashed again live this Wednesday evening.

Four days before the second round, the president seeking re-election and the RN candidate discussed many topics, from purchasing power to security, including the environment and the war in Ukraine.

Read alsoProject against project, blow for blow: our analysis of the debate

Some of their exchanges were very tense, and several of their assertions gave rise to disagreement.

We take a look at the main ones.

Who benefited from increases in purchasing power?

Marine Le Pen criticized Emmanuel Macron for boasting of the increase in the purchasing power of the French under his five-year term.

What is it exactly?

In fact, all social categories have seen their purchasing power increase over the last five years.

According to an OFCE study published on March 17, the poorest 10% of French people would have seen their disposable income increase by 600 euros per consumption unit over the entire five-year period.

As a percentage, this is a little more than for the richest 10%.

But in absolute value, it is four times less.

Read also Presidential: Macron, president of the rich?

What the results of the first round say

“It is important to look at absolute values, because these purchasing power gains were made by widening the deficit.

So every euro is important, “said recently to Parisian Éric Heyer, director of the Analysis and Forecasting department of the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE).

Almost as many unemployed as five years ago?

Emmanuel Macron and his teams regularly put before the drop in unemployment in their balance sheet.

"The unemployed in categories A, B and C were 5.5 million when you were elected, they are 5.4 million today," retorted Marine Le Pen.

More specifically, their number rose from nearly 5.6 to 5.3 million at the end of last year, according to official statistics from the Ministry of Labor.

But Emmanuel Macron prefers to focus on the unemployed as defined by the International Labor Office (ILO).

That is to say, according to INSEE, a person aged 15 or over and…

  • unemployed during a given week;

  • available to work within two weeks;

  • who has taken an active job search over the last four weeks or has found a job starting within three months.

In this context, unemployment “has gone from 9.6 to 7.4%”, replied Emmanuel Macron.

This rate was reached in the fourth quarter of 2021, and it is the lowest since 2008. According to the president-candidate, people in categories B and C, that is to say having exercised a reduced activity, do not should not be included in the statistics.

The Covid at the heart of debt debates…

For Marine Le Pen, the Macron five-year term has been at the origin of “600 billion euros of additional debt in 5 years, two thirds of which have nothing to do with the Covid”.

According to INSEE, the French debt has increased by nearly 600 billion euros in five years.

“Between 170 and 200 billion euros [are] linked to the Covid crisis”, indicated at the end of September on CNews the Minister of Public Accounts, Olivier Dussopt.

The fact remains that "the health crisis has also caused a drop in GDP, and therefore a drop in revenue

(tax and social)

, which also represents around 160 billion", estimates François Ecalle, former magistrate at the Court of Auditors and president of the Fipeco blog, with Liberation.

Only almost half of the additional debt over five years would therefore not be linked to Covid.

… and on Russia

Still regarding the pandemic, the president-candidate felt that France did not have to be ashamed of the crisis management by its government.

"All your friends, when I look at how they handled the Covid crisis, I'm rather proud of the way we handled it," he said, referring in particular to Russia, of which he accuses the RN candidate. to "depend".

Russia: "Emmanuel Macron knows full well that I am an absolutely and totally free woman", defends Marine Le Pen #debatmacronlepen pic.twitter.com/LRkZ5Kl2Ye

— franceinfo (@franceinfo) April 20, 2022

In the ranking of the Lowy Institute, which takes into account several criteria, France was slightly ahead, in March 2021, of Russia (respectively in 71st and 78th place).

Based on the cumulative number of deaths alone (reported to the population), France has about 20% less than Russia.

However, this comparison should be taken with caution, in particular because deaths are not necessarily counted in the same way.

Did Marine Le Pen recognize the annexation of Crimea by Russia?

Still concerning Russia, the Head of State criticized the RN candidate for having supported the country of Vladimir Putin during its military operation to annex Crimea in 2014. In March of that year, during a press conference in Saint-Gilles (Gard), Marine Le Pen had estimated that the results of the referendum in favor of the attachment of Crimea to Russia were “without possible dispute”.

"I absolutely do not believe that there was an illegal annexation of Crimea: there was a referendum, the inhabitants wanted to join Russia," she replied to CNN in 2017.

Questions about the Russian loan

In 2014, Marine Le Pen took out a loan of 9 million euros from a Russian bank, the First Czech Russian Bank (FCRB), originally created in the Czech Republic.

The reason ?

No bank had agreed to lend money to the National Front (now National Rally).

“We threw hooks everywhere: in Spain, Italy, the United States, Asia and Russia.

And the first one we caught, we signed and we are very happy.

What is scandalous is that French banks do not lend!

“Explained at the time to World Marine Le Pen.

This Wednesday evening, Emmanuel Macron accused him of having taken out this loan "not from a lambda bank, even in Russia, but from the interests of power", and even of "depending on Russian power" Sunday, on France Inter, the acting president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, had replied that if this bank was truly supported by the Russian authorities, it would not have gone bankrupt.

This year, Marine Le Pen obtained a loan of 10.6 million euros from a bank… Hungarian.

The Fessenheim power plant, closed for “security reasons”?

According to Marine Le Pen, the closure of the Fessenheim power plant, decided by Emmanuel Macron from the start of his mandate, was "absolutely not linked to security reasons".

"Fessenheim, I totally assume, there was no longer an investment since 2012," retorted the president-candidate.

What is it in reality?

Many environmental associations and organizations have long denounced the dangers of the plant.

Greenpeace cited in particular the risk of flooding or earthquakes, "the wear and tear of non-replaceable materials" or even its fragility in the face of a possible terrorist act.

The Nuclear Safety Authority has nevertheless always given a positive assessment to the plant, even considering in its latest report that it was among the safest in France.

The wind turbine project in Le Touquet, the only one suspended?

"All [the wind turbine projects] have been approved, except the one opposite Le Touquet", thundered Marine Le Pen, referring to the town of Pas-de-Calais where the Macron couple have a house and go from time to time. in Week-end.

🔴



#Wind turbines 🗣️ @MLP_officiel


"You want to put them everywhere, on all the coasts, except in front of Le Touquet... because you still don't have to push"



🗣️ @EmmanuelMacron


"Madame Le Pen... But you're kidding or what ?"



📺 #2022LeDébat on @TF1 |

@LCI #debatmacronlepen pic.twitter.com/Sb2fuyXCRX

— TF1Info (@TF1Info) April 20, 2022

This project, consisting of installing 40 wind turbines in a maritime environment ten kilometers from the coast, was suspended in August 2017 after consultation with stakeholders.

"The conditions favorable to the launch of a call for tenders in the Bassure de Baas area are not met at this stage" and "the Minister [of ecology, Nicolas Hulot] has decided to suspend the consultation on this area “, could we in a letter signed in particular by the prefect of Hauts-de-France.

Still, Le Touquet is not the only place where a wind turbine project has been abandoned.

In Tredias (Côtes d'Armor), the Administrative Court of Appeal of Nantes retained last July "excessive inconveniences for the protection of the environment and the convenience of the neighborhood", for example.

Can Marine Le Pen modify the Constitution by referendum?

The RN candidate recalled her wish to organize a referendum to modify the Constitution.

This project aims in particular to integrate the national preference in the supreme text.

Marine Le Pen bases the overhaul on article 11, the only one that allows a referendum to be held without the prior approval of Parliament.

According to the case law of the Council of State, only article 89 makes it possible to undertake a constitutional reform by way of referendum.

Except that in this case, the text must first receive the approval of Parliament.

However, in the event of victory on Sunday, Marine Le Pen will not have the majority in the Senate, which would oppose it for sure.

The candidate's teams ensure that the Elders of the Constitutional Council cannot prevent the holding of such a referendum, because the latter would not be legitimate to consider the content of a referendum but only on "the conditions of organization”.

An affirmation that leaves constitutionalists speechless.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2022-04-21

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