French presidential candidates clash at first debate before upcoming elections

Seven of the leading candidates in the increasingly tight and crowded race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron clashed on Thursday in their first debate, eight months ahead of the election. The candidates, spanning the hard left to far right, agreed that France was facing economic trouble, at a debate organised by the country's employer's federation MEDEF. But at Paris's Roland Garros complex, more used to hosting clashes between top tennis stars than between politicians, they differed wildly over how to combat the country's problems. Read moreFrench MEP Glucksmann seeks to unite the left in bid for French presidency Marine Le Pen, seeking the presidency at her fourth attempt and riding high in the polls, announced her far-right National Rally (RN) party would present a 125 billion euro ($146 billion) cost-cutting plan and acknowledged there was a "general consensus on the seriousness of the situation". But hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon urged business leaders to "raise wages" to prevent France from "falling into recession" and slammed "tax giveaways" under Macron which he alleged equalled the sum of the entire deficit. Centrist hopeful Édouard Philippe, a former premier unde...