During the debate, the Prime Minister accused the head of the Rassemblement National list of having a ‘moral contract’ with the Kremlin. The president of the Rassemblement national, Jordan Bardella, and the prime minister, Gabriel Attal, clashed on Thursday 23 May on France 2 for around an hour and twenty minutes, during the programme ‘L’Événement’

Topics covered included free trade, the ecological transition, nuclear power, immigration and the war in Ukraine. With 17 days to go until the European elections, for which Jordan Bardella is leading the polls, the debate covered a wide range of subjects.

In this, the sixth debate between the two politicians, Jordan Bardella began by comparing his ‘project’ for Europe with Emmanuel Macron’s ‘record’, declaring: ‘I want a Europe that embraces economic patriotism, that protects us in the face of migratory disorder’. The head of government retorted that the Rassemblement National was advocating ‘a vision of withdrawal and the end of the European Union’.

One of the most heated exchanges concerned relations between the Rassemblement National and Moscow. The Prime Minister criticised the MEP for having a ‘moral contract’ with the Kremlin, pointing out that the RN had previously taken out loans with Russian banks. ‘Even if you have repaid your debt, you have a moral contract with them, which limits your freedom to vote and make decisions in the European Parliament’, the Prime Minister attacked. Jordan Bardella retorted: ‘It’s not worthy of the Prime Minister of France to use such cheap arguments. It wasn’t Marine Le Pen who received Vladimir Putin in Breançon during his holidays’.

On the question of immigration, the two men exchanged views at length. Jordan Bardella presented the European elections as a ‘vote for or against mass immigration’, severely criticising the government’s record on this issue. ‘Mr Attal, you have broken all immigration records’, accused Bardella. Gabriel Attal denounced Bardella’s ‘revolting’ vision of immigration, saying that his presentation gives the impression that ‘every foreigner, every immigrant is a potential delinquent or terrorist’.

On the ecological transition and the climate crisis, the two leaders’ visions diverged sharply. Bardella criticised the government’s ‘unrealistic environmental ambitions’, in particular the ban on internal combustion vehicles in 2035. Gabriel Attal clarified that he was referring to ‘new vehicles’ and argued that Europe was ‘ahead of the game’ in its ecological transition. He added: ‘You seem to live in a world where France has oil and oil doesn’t pollute’.

Finally, Gabriel Attal criticised the RN’s proposal to introduce national preference for companies in public procurement. In his view, such a measure would encourage European neighbours to take reciprocal decisions, thereby penalising French companies involved in public contracts abroad.