The fight for France is underway. The 2027 presidential campaign began last night as the leading candidates clashed in a live debate on the centre court of Roland Garros.

Yesterday’s confrontation came on the same day a poll confirmed that Marine Le Pen is streets ahead of her rivals in the court of public opinion. The leader of the National Rally boasts an approval rating of 33 per cent, more than twice that of the left’s Jean-Luc Melenchon. He is on 16 per cent with the centrist former prime minister Edouard Philippe 2 per cent behind. Fourth, on 11 per cent, is Raphael Glucksmann, the leader of the centre-left Place Publique.

The host of the debate was MEDEF, the largest employer federation in France, so the audience was composed of men and women more anxious than most about the dreadful state of the country’s economy. France’s public debt is running at more than 117 per cent of GDP and borrowing costs are nearing crisis point. With unemployment rising and a record number of businesses folding, the mood at Roland Garros was as flat as an old tennis ball.

No one does blah-blah better than Emmanuel Macron

No one does blah-blah better than Emmanuel........

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