Dr Itay Lotem, Senior Lecturer in French Studies, was interviewed by Bloomberg TV about the French elections and Marine Le Pen gaining ground on Emmanuel Macron.
Talking about the reasons for the polls narrowing between Macron and Le Pen, Dr Lotem said: “I think there are two things here, the first thing being that throughout the campaign [Macron] has focused on governing rather than campaigning…it’s not entirely unusual for a sitting president to not campaign and focus on trying to win the election from the seat of the president.”
Discussing his expectations for the TV debate between Macron and Le Pen, he added: “It will be very hard to tell, because if we go back to 2017 when they had the same TV debate that was [Le Pen]’s downfall, she was not able to answer Macron’s questions. On the other hand, who knows what she has learned from that.”
Talking about the cost-of-living crisis and Le Pen’s campaign, he said: “When it comes to actual policies most of them are focused on a protection of the welfare state against Macron, especially his liberalisation approaches. On the other hand of course all of this protection of the welfare state is also combined with the idea of national preference to make sure that any benefits and welfare will be only for the French.”
Listen to the full interview on Bloomberg’s website.
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