Last night, about 6.3 millions of viewers watched the first televised presidential debate in France diffused on BFMTV and CNEWS which lasted more than four hours.

The 11 candidates are: Benoît Hamon, Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen, François Fillon, François Asselineau, Jacques Cheminade, Nathalie Arthaud, Philippe Poutou, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Jean Lassalle et Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

France had the choice between 11 candidates who all defended with conviction their vision of the future of France. Each candidate had to speak within a total of 15 minutes.

Their discussion about Europe was very divided shifting from the stark belief of leaving the EU, referred to as “Frexit”, to ensure the prosperity of French economics and independent political decision making to a more conciliant view of making reforms within the EU better aligned with French desires.

Indeed, Benoit Hamon suggested to reform France in the context of the European Union political framework by proposing a plan for South and Eastern countries to reduce the development gap (eg creation of a European minimum wage (SMIC)) along with reaching a better alliance between socialists European countries.

By contrast, Le Pen strongly claimed to be “ni dans le flou ni dans le mensonge” (not ambiguous nor in lying) the french people will decide and vote on what they want on France’s involvement in the EU. Along those lines, Fillion added that France needed Europe in order to protect itself from Asia and the US monetary dominion with the dollar.

Philippe Poutou, Ford worker, sincerity was refreshing and probably very relatable to the working class and the silent majority. Similarly, Nathalie Arthaud spoke about the difficult and practical realities on the political and economic system based on profit by praising anti-capitalist ideals. She referred to the discussion on Europe as a “distraction” from the tough issues of raising salaries and presidential privileges.

What is striking is that we find a certain pattern between candidates who firmly support international economic cooperation and foreign policy agreements and intervention in terms of terrorism prevention such was the position of Cheminade as opposed to other candidates like Nathalie Arthaud or Philippe Poutou, who favored France domestic development solely and considered foreign intervention as archives of “imperialism”.

This was particularly visible during the talk about counter terrorism and state security. Most of the candidates recognized the threat of cyber terrorism and recruitment. Macron and Lassalle spoke about the eradication of terrorism through military intervention and cyber defense.

On that note, a memorable quote from Le Pen, was “La France est une universite des jihadistes”. On the other hand, Melenchon was opposed to the idea that terrorism was purely religious and anchored the terrorism in economic terms by stating that the root of terrorism is natural resources not religion which could be addressed through redistribution and economic agreement on resources management.

The third part of the debate discussed the morals and exemplarity of the candidates as future president. Melenchon expressed his will to put an end to the “presidential monarchy” while others like Dupont-Agnan and Asselineau, stood for the importance of a “casier judiciaire vierge” which basically means a candidate should have no criminal records.

All in all, the debate was rich in ideas and offered French people a good sample of each candidate's’ potential as future leaders of the nation. Melenchon and Macron came out with the highest percentage as most convincing candidates by Le Point which lifts focus off Le Pen however the people of France will take action in less 20 days from now.