we tell you about the ultra-locked communication of Emmanuel Macron’s minimum campaign

In front of more than 300 journalists gathered at the Docks de Paris, in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), Thursday March 17, Emmanuel Macron details his program for four hours and answers questions from the press. His communications team tries to take care of the details. “On arrival, I was asked: ‘Do you want to ask a question? If so, what is it?’ I was a bit shocked”says a journalist.

In the entourage of the candidate, we deny. Only the themes would have been requested in order to better organize the debates. “Those who did not answer were able to have the microphone anyway. The objective was to address the most varied subjects possible with very different types of media in the room”assures the team of Emmanuel Macron. “I don’t feel like we’re in a Stalinist campaign… What would it have been like if there had been the same question four times?” adds a LREM deputy. “They justify this by a desire to organize, but it still gives an image of communication control”reacts a journalist.

As usual, the candidate Macron leaves nothing to chance in his communication. “There is a much more assertive desire for control than at the end of the mandate, notes the same journalist. I don’t know if it’s a succession of blunders or an assumed strategy, but the result is a lockdown.” The candidate’s team refuses this term, because “there is no desire to hide anything. On the other hand, it is a question of making sure that the com is organized.”

“We know that a badly made image can be mocked on social networks…”

A ministerial adviser

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This adviser thinks for example of the defense council of the candidate LR Valérie Pécresse, abundantly mocked. “Better a candidate who controls his campaign than the opposite, but it sure limits the little phrase”, says an LREM deputy. This desire sometimes borders on excess, as in Poissy (Yvelines), on March 7, during the candidate’s first meeting with handpicked French people. The mayor of the city, Karl Olive, support of the president, had carefully prepared the meeting to put his champion in the best possible conditions, as revealed by France Inter by revealing the sheets containing the questions planned in advance.

“We must ensure that the mastery of com does not give a feeling of manipulation”warns a communicator of macronie. “The Poissy organization was full of good will, but it appeared to be prepared, which took away its spontaneityadmits François Bayrou, the boss of the Modem. Often politicians are afraid of improvisation. They are wrong. The key to communication appreciated by citizens is authenticity.”

“And Macron is never as good as in adversity.”

François Bayrou, president of the Modem

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“Let’s not fall into caricature either, these were not people reading a teleprompter”, relativizes a member of the government. The candidate’s team also denounces a bad trial: “The other candidates rent rooms, invite their members, put in activists chanting slogans and applauding, without contradiction, and that doesn’t bother anyone, but Emmanuel Macron’s room must not necessarily be won over to his cause, the roughs it up, heckles it to make it believable?

The episode illustrates despite everything the ultra-controlled campaign of the candidate. “We are in a very sanitized corporate communication, there are few things that go beyond”, notes a journalist. Leading in the polls, the president is content to manage his lead, without committing a fault. “Old football observers like me call it the ‘catenaccio’, we close the game the Italian way. He won’t score a goal, but he won’t take one”observes the communicator Robert Zarader. “It’s so controlled that we are seen as part of a communication plan”annoyed a journalist from the audiovisual press.

In this neat plan, the president has chosen to multiply meetings with French people. He is, Monday, March 28, in Dijon, for a trip on the theme of youth and the politics of the city, where he must meet the inhabitants of a district during a stroll. “There is also the choice of media close to the territories which reflect this desire for proximity and exchanges”, notes an LREM deputy. The candidate notably chose to participate in a program on France Bleu, then in “Outre-mer 2022” on La 1ère, after having already answered questions from readers of the local press during a trip to Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) – another city held by one of his relatives, François Bayrou.

During this event tensions arise between the press and the Macron team. When the spectators settle down, the audiovisual journalists are not free of their movements. “We were told: ‘You can come with the cameras to do an ‘image tour’, but on the other hand you can’t bring in a microphone”says a journalist. “IThere were constraints, in particular the fact that it was organized by the regional press, which meant that it was not possible before, but after the meetingresponds the communications team. They were obviously able to ask all the questions they wanted to the people in the room.”

Among the constraints, the war in Ukraine has emerged as the main one. Emmanuel Macron wanted to be candidate-president, he is finally president-candidate. “Due of the conflict, the campaign is made of great uncertainties, in particular on the agendas, recognize Emmanuel Macron’s teams. We know that this situation is uncomfortable for journalists because they have access to little information very early on, but it is just as uncomfortable for the teams and for the candidate himself!”

Apart from the rally in Paris scheduled for April 2, there will be no other meeting with the president but many meetings with the ministers. “A campaign a bit by delegation”notes a member of the government. “The context prevents Emmanuel Macron from doing more”assures the deputy MoDem Christophe Jerretie.

“The population would not understand that we have time to hold three meetings a week.”

Christophe Jerretie, MoDem MP for Corrèze

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Prevent any negative perception of public opinion, but not only. “I can understand that we try to control as much as possible because what can damage the candidate can also damage the president and, in the international context, we must not show the slightest weakness”ensures a communicator of the macronie.

To galvanize the base other than through meetings, the majority has found a solution: a web-series entitled The candidate, broadcast every Friday and shot by a director hired by the presidential entourage. Polished images, suspenseful music, we discover the backstage of Emmanuel Macron’s campaign. The reference is obvious: Netflix. The candidate thus signs the account of his campaign himself. “The idea is to give a vision from the inside, to show the candidate behind the scenes”, explains an LREM strategist. Why not call on journalists? “The director has access to public as well as private moments. We don’t have the same working relationship with him as with a journalist.”, justifies the campaign team.

In the third episode, we see Emmanuel Macron, on a quay of the Seine, talking with passers-by delighted to come across the tenant of the Elysée. “Mr. President, what an honor to see you!” throws a young woman at him. “We are still the most beautiful country in the world“, enthuses the candidate on the Invalides bridge, the sparkling Eiffel Tower in the background. “The strings are a little big, but it works fine”recognizes a deputy.

“There are not many rough edges, the only time they meet real people is to take selfies.”

Robert Zarader, communicator

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So far, no episodes have shown campaign strategy discussions. Unlikely to see this on screen, but since Emmanuel Macron is in power, the operation is well known. The Head of State decides only with a restricted circle of followers, including his very close Secretary General, Alexis Kohler. Hence frustration among some elected officials.

“The program was built without the deputies, who nevertheless had five years of expertise. They were presented with a fait accompli.”

A LREM deputy

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“But does the president need us? He needs himself”argues another MP. “The campaign is decided in the head of a man, it has been quite successful for him so far. If some have not accepted it after five years, that’s their problem”pings a ministerial adviser. “At least, things are settled. I prefer that rather than operating at Pécresse with his Mexican army”clutches another.

“They have a very managerial vision, with well-defined roles”, summarizes the professor of political communication Anne-Claire Ruel. But the results are there, according to the clutches of macronie. “An effective campaign does not need to be done in many heads”, says a secretary of state. “Lockdown is a good thing, because the little phrase can hurt in the polls”, engages Christophe Jerretie. Some are well aware that “for the press and the opponents, this may lack salt”, corn “that works”. Indeed, journalists deplore this strategy while noting its effectiveness, particularly with regard to voting intentions.

“It depresses me as a journalist, but you almost have to applaud. If I worked in communications, I would do like them.”

A journalist

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Still, this campaign at a minimum, without debate before the first round, can raise questions from a democratic point of view. “Emmanuel Macron is in the economy. He doesn’t need to do anything, why would he take risks? asks Robert Zarader. But there is a real subject of democratic precariousness.” The president’s opponents were not mistaken in accusing him of evading the debate. Some, including Gérard Larcher, the LR president of the Senate, even question his legitimacy if he were re-elected.

Words that arouse the indignation of macronists, who fear only one thing: the possible “demobilization of [leur] electorate” in front of a ballot that seems played, according to a member of the government. The polling institutes announce a participation of between 63% and 71% in the first round, levels never reached under the Fifth Republic. Fear ? A simple renewal of the president, and not a real re-election.