French centrist Emmanuel Macron impressed more viewers than his far-right rival Marine le Pen in a fiery TV debate, a poll found on Thursday, underlining his status as the favourite for this weekend’s presidential runoff.
The candidates clashed repeatedly over terrorism, the economy and Europe in Wednesday’s hot-tempered debate that was watched by 16.5 million people.
A poll by French broadcaster BFMTV found that 63 per cent of viewers thought Macron was the “most convincing” of the two, broadly mirroring the forecast result for the decisive election on Sunday.
The duel was billed as a confrontation between Macron’s call for openness and pro-market reforms and le Pen’s France- first nationalism.
le Pen branded the former economy minister and investment banker “the candidate of the elite” and the “darling of the system”. Macron responded by describing the 48-year-old scion of the National Front (FN) as “the heir of a system which has prospered from the fury of the French people for decades”.