Macron and Le Pen trade blows in epic debate showdown

French presidential candidates Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen traded insults in a showdown of "unprecedented brutality" during a live TV debate last night.

They battled it out for more than two hours, each hoping to win over voters before they go to the polls on Sunday in one of the most divisive elections in France's history.

Macron, who set up his centrist En Marche! party last year, was widely seen as the victor, winning more than 63 per cent of viewers, the BBC reports.

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However, both candidates were criticised for spending more time insulting one another than talking policy.

Shocked by the level of invective, France's Le Figaro newspaper called out Le Pen's "strategy of total war" in a debate of "unprecedented brutality", while Liberation criticised her for "drowning the debate in an avalanche of disinformation".

"Maybe. But it didn't half make for riveting viewing," the BBC says.

Le Pen accused her rival of being little more than a cold-hearted banker, adds the broadcaster, while he went for her Front National roots. "The high priestess of fear is sitting before me," he said.

Le Pen being there at all was "historic", the Washington Post says - when her father Jean-Marie Le Pen reached the final round of the presidential vote in 2002, Jacques Chirac refused to debate him.

The format of French candidates sparring across a table with no studio audience has not changed for 40 years, says The Guardian, which declares the latest debate a "slanging match".

The New York Times agrees, saying it was "more like an angry American-style television shoutfest than the reasoned discussion of issues the French have become accustomed to".

CNN writes: "There was so much at stake that it was almost difficult to watch."

Infographic by www.statista.com for TheWeek.co.uk.