We are looking, Wednesday, April 13, at the speech of Emmanuel Macron. The outgoing President knows that if he wants to win against Marine Le Pen on 24th April next, he will have to convince left-wing voters to vote for him. Yes, but there you go, the signals he’s sending them at the moment… are deceptive concessions.
We know it: it is the voters on the left, and particularly those of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who will be the key to the second round of the presidential election. Emmanuel Macron has therefore been working, since the beginning of the week, to address them. He did so in particular this Wednesday morning, on France 2. In the 4 Truths, the President-candidate returned to his ambitions in terms of ecological transition: “I want to step up the pace on that, explains Emmanuel Macron. I also want to look at what comes from other proposals that will allow us to clarify this line with ecological planning that can set, if I may say so, its objectives year after year.”
Ecological planning is obviously the flagship concept of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the one that the leader of La France insoumise has hammered and popularized for years. A way for Emmanuel Macron to address his voters directly. But beware: he took over the concept, it’s true, but without attaching any specific commitment to ensure its implementation. For the moment, we remain in the sole domain of discourse. This is not the only concept that Emmanuel Macron borrowed from Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The president-candidate used exactly the same process in evoking a reform of the institutions: “Being able to set up a cross-party commission with all the political sensitivities which can then submit to the two assemblies a proposal for reforming our constitution in order precisely to renovate and improve it. / To have, for example, more proportionality. A better system of political responsibility established. / Restoring strength to popular sovereignty. / If it was my program I would have written it and I would not have just said it there. What I am giving you here is a reflection.
Reform of institutions, proportional voting, responsibility of elected officials, popular sovereignty: so many concepts which, here again, can only speak to the voters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who pleaded for a deepening of our democracy, via the meeting of a constituent. But, again, we remain here in the order of the single discourse. Emmanuel Macron speaks of a cross-party commission, shares a reflection, but makes no concrete commitment.
The speech of the outgoing Head of State is never much more precise. All he evokes is his vague desire to work with “other sensitivities”: “In any case, in order to be able to gather and move forward, it will be necessary to take into account all these sensitivities, assures Emmanuel Macron. Bringing together political forces that don’t totally think like me. / I think you have to walk, walk with people who have different sensitivities, different convictions. / I think we have to invent something new. / I think we need clarity.”
Contrary to what he claims, we are indeed in the antithesis of clarity. All this method which Emmanuel Macron gargles is, for the time being, only made up of a series of mobilizing concepts. Very sympathetic words, certainly, but which do not have the slightest precise content. In his desire to open up to voters who did not vote for him in the first round, the outgoing President is for the moment as generous in words as he remains stingy in deeds.
This ambiguity seems to hide for the moment a desire for status quo. And this was seen in particular on the pension reform. Emmanuel Macron promised concessions: “First we will consult. Then we will go to the vote and then, from 2023, there will be a four-month lag to finance the start of this social progress. Four months the following year, which means that we will reach around 64 years of age in 2027, 2028. I say that there must be a review clause. That’s opening a project. Does that take away any reform ambition in the next five years?
For this declaration, the decoder must be connected. Emmanuel Macron says he will consult before going to the vote. Tremendous ! But immediately afterwards, he announces to us four months of postponement of the legal age every year. What is the point of concerting then, if the result is already known? The only gesture is the review clause after 64 years. It simply means that there will be a new consultation before moving on to 65 years. But when we see the way he intends to concert, we have a small idea of the result! The conclusion of his explanation is, moreover, clear: he is willing “open your project” but without “cut off some reforming ambition”. We can discuss… but it won’t change anything! All this is nothing out of the ordinary.
If Emmanuel Macron wants to be able to count on the voices of the left against Marine Le Pen, it is not sure that he can, this time, be content with making grand declarations. However, for the moment, he has not made the beginning of the beginning of a real concession.