Madame, Monsieur in ugly spat

Le Pen-Macron war of words continues even after an acrimonious debate

Paris, May 4: The ferocious and acrimonious exchange between French presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen continued even after the televised debate on Thursday. Macron impressed more viewers than Le Pen, a poll found, 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, which 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.

Later, Macron filed a complaint against Le Pen for implying that he had an “offshore account in the Bahamas”, an aide said. “We will not hesitate to prosecute for defamation anyone who repeats this false information,” a member of Macron’s camp said.

Judicial sources said prosecutors had opened a probe following the complaint from Macron.

A source close to the case said the complaint targets “information that circulated Wednesday night on the Internet” alleging tax evasion in the Bahamas. Speaking on French radio, Macron characterised the insinuations as “fake news and lies” from “sites some of which were linked to Russian interests”.

During the debate, Le Pen branded the 39-yearold former economy minister and investment banker “the candidate of the elite” while he called her “the high priestess of fear”.

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”.

He frequently branded Le Pen a liar and even a “parasite of the system” who he said lived off the frustrations of France’s stalled political system.

On Europe, Le Pen accused Macron of being “submissive” towards German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying, “France will be led by a woman-either me or Mrs Merkel.” “He presents himself as a new man who emerged from nowhere... when, in fact, he emerged from (President) Francois Hollande’s government.”

Macron told radio, “You can’t choke off all of the lies but you can kill off some of them.” — Agencies