How we did this project
Where do these questions come from? The editorial staff of franceinfo.fr launched, at the end of December 2021, an appeal to its users asking them what question they would dream of asking the future President of the Republic. In a few weeks, we received and reviewed nearly 2,000 contributions. Ten of them were selected and submitted to candidates for the presidential election.
How were the questions selected? We first identified the themes that came up most frequently in these 2,000 questions, thus giving them an order of priority. Then, within the 10 most mentioned themes, we chose the most representative questions.
Among the most discussed topics: global warming, health, education and purchasing power. On the contrary, we received few questions regarding security or immigration. Important clarification: the choice of questions was made before the start of the war in Ukraine, which explains the absence of this theme.
The relevance of the questions was a decisive selection criterion. The profile of the French interviewing the candidates also contributed to our choice: as many women as men, a diversity of ages and places of residence.
When were the candidate interviews conducted? Due to schedule constraints of some candidates, the interviews were spread over several weeks: the first was shot on February 9, the last on Saturday March 26.
Why doesn’t Emmanuel Macron appear? Despite our numerous reminders, Emmanuel Macron’s campaign team did not respond favorably so that the outgoing head of state could participate in this project within the time allowed. For the sake of democratic and editorial balance, we have decided to ask Gabriel Attal, government spokesperson and supporter of the president and candidate Emmanuel Macron, to represent his positions.
Did the candidates have access to the questions in advance? No. Several campaign teams wanted to be able to consult in advance the questions that we would ask the candidates. We refused each time, but we agreed to reveal some of the topics discussed.
Credits
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Writing : Antoine Comte, Margaux Duguet, Thibaud Le Meneec, Clément Parrot, Robin Prudent
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Proofreading: Nicolas Buzdugan, Camille Caldini, Boris Jullien, David Perrault, Stephanie Thonnet, Jalila Zaoug
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Filming: Cyril Brunet, Laurent Calvy, Laurent Crouzillac, Eric Delagneau, Stéphane Nervest
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Assembly : Alexandra Cosqueric, Adrien Canestraro, Agnès Leveque, Medhi Kassou, Florian Dumont, Sabrina Gravelaine, Pierre-Louis Caron
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Design: Maxime Loisel
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Design: Paul M.
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Development : Gregoire Humbert, Dimitri Piriou
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Editorial oversight: Ilan Caro, Audrey Cerdan, Jérôme Comin, Simon Gourmellet, Delphine Legouté, Benoît Zagdoun