The debate droned for an hour before Macron suddenly started throwing killer punches, accusing Le Pen of being the first European political leader to endorse Putin's annexation of Crimea in 2014. In exchange, Le Pen was given a giant soft loan by a Kremlin backed Russian bank to finance her party. "You are dependent on Vladimir Putin, Mme Le Pen."

It was reminiscent of General de Gaulle's charge that the French communist party then financed by the Kremlin was a "foreign French party". To anyone who lived through the glory years of French communist politics with its focus on  banning foreign workers in France, opposing European partnership, proclaiming a defence of the interests of French workers but proposing protectionist, frontier-closing measures that would weaken the French economy, the language of Marine Le Pen and her father before her is eerily similar.