France’s chaotic Presidential debate was a dismal disappointment

The presidential campaign is nothing if not a test of endurance for the French public although there were moments yesterday evening when the televised debate felt more like a punishment. For four hours, the eleven candidates talked, or to be more precise, shouted, interrupted and ranted at one another. It was, in the words of Le Figaro, a ‘cacophony’ and one that ‘rapidly turned the debate into a confusion’.

It was the first time in a presidential campaign that all the candidates, not just the principal ones, have debated and it will probably be the last. A second full-scale debate is scheduled for April 20th but Jean-Luc Mélenchon has already withdrawn given its proximity to the first round of voting three days later; last night’s farrago is likely to encourage the other four leading candidates to follow suit,

It didn’t augur well the moment one of the candidates, Philippe Poutou, a chippy Trotskyist in charge of something called the New Anti-Capitalist Party, refused to line up for the official photograph.