Last night. Oh the horror, the horror. I expected it to be bad, but the alternative was a match between Ajax Amsterdam and Olympique Lyonnais, and I had a bad feeling about that too (4-1 as it turned out).

It was shouty as hell. Macron, as I had feared, was pretty awful. Yet won convincingly. Le Pen landed a few good punches in the opening minutes, but lost it about halfway through :

Meilleur gif de la soirée 👌  #2017LeDébat pic.twitter.com/2ZxUDQ41zC

— franceinfo plus (@franceinfoplus) May 3, 2017

 ... and never recovered.

In all logic, the whole thing will push up abstemption by 10% or so. But Le Pen is surely sunk. Not only for this electoral cycle. She may well be in difficulty as head of her party. That's how bad it was. Her niece Marion as probable successor, when the dust dies down.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}