French voters unimpressed by fractious TV debate as election looms
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Media outlets and the residents of the French capital have been reacting to the final fractious TV debate ahead of Sunday’s presidential election.
Both candidates, frontrunner Emanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen traded barb after barb.
French election: Macron 'most convincing' in final debate https://t.co/iCSUKby0nB pic.twitter.com/Kwn92SyRbp
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) May 4, 2017
The unpleasant nature of the debate appeared to alienate Parisian voters: “It was relatively disappointing. It was a very low level debate, not good ahead of the second round. There were insults and little detail. It was a battle against one another. Frankly I expected better,” said one Parisian, another claimed the debate irrelevant: “It was repetitive, a stream of insults from one to the other. It won’t change to outcome of the election.”
Emmanuel Macron ahead of Marine Le Pen after vicious French election debate https://t.co/6yELcKRsTv pic.twitter.com/70zTnIdyjX
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) May 4, 2017
For this woman the nature of the debate was a turn off:
“It was a heated debate and that is why I switched off, the aggression bothered me.”
Despite the criticisms pundits, papers, pollsters and people declared Macron the victor.