In recent years, the political debates in France have followed a simple rule: Marine Le Pen's side and Emmanuel Macron's side debate for 90 minutes or more, and in the end, Macron's side always wins. On Thursday, May 23, Gabriel Attal made things unusually difficult for Jordan Bardella during a debate on European issues hosted by the broadcaster France 2, with Macron's prime minister acting like a candidate and Le Pen's number 2 remaining on the defensive.

The debate pitted a head of government not running in the European elections – but finding himself forced to enter the fray to salvage his coalition's campaign – against a far-right candidate at his peak in the polls, looking only to avoid the slightest mistake. Both sides were determined to maintain a duel that has dominated French political life since 2017, excluding other parties from the event. And both men, despite their young age – 35 and 28 respectively – showed they are not short of ambition.

It was the eighth face-off between Attal and Bardella, but perhaps the most closely scrutinized of all, with high personal stakes and the far-right candidate comfortably leading in the polls ahead of the June 9 election. Attal was looking for an important victory against his rival from the same generation, and probably succeeded. Bardella sought to avoid missteps and any sign of arrogance, resulting in a performance in which he never presented all his arguments and remained stoic as the attacks came raining down on him.

The RN's candidate, who had dominated the debate against the ruling coalition's lead candidate Valérie Hayer a month earlier and has previously put some of Macron's ministers on the back foot, was this time forced to follow the tempo and key moments set by his opponent. He was also caught off guard on substantive issues and never made his opponent doubt. A smug smile spread across Attal's face as the evening progressed.

From the very first segment, on economic issues, the prime minister inaugurated what would be his strategy throughout the debate: questioning Bardella on his policies to highlight their contradictions. Attal attacked one of the far-right party's key measures, namely "national priority in the single market on public procurement," pointing out that this was a proposal previously "advocated by Jean-Marie Le Pen," the father of Marine Le Pen, to better align his opponent with his party's history.

"You say: 'France, now, will reserve its public procurement contracts in priority for French companies.' But other European countries will do exactly the same. But other European countries will do exactly the same and our companies will lose contracts," said Attal, adding that "80% of our SMEs export to a European country." Bardella seemed unable to respond, and contented himself with accusing the prime minister of not "having trust in French know-how."

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