The candidate for the Republican primary was the guest of Marc Fauvelle and Salhia Brakhlia on franceinfo on Wednesday, October 27. And inspired Clement Viktorovich with an astonishing reflection: What does it really mean to say… what we say?
That’s right ! I recognize that, framed in this way, the question may seem incongruous. But rest assured, everything should light up while listening to Eric Ciotti. When asked this morning what was the best way to qualify his candidacy, the answer was clear: he is simply the candidate on the right: “I feel totally in tune with the will of Republican activists, to have strong ideas, to be clearly on the right. Today, an opinion poll says that the country has never been so right. Activists are calling for right-wing ideas. I titled my campaign ‘Right!’ with an exclamation point, a sign of willingness to hold righteous ideas, not to apologize, to no longer apologize for being on the right …. “
Six times the word “straight” in less than 30 seconds, without any editing. Don’t do this at home, it’s a professional stunt! From a political point of view, Eric Ciotti’s assertion seems quite valid. It has been a long time since he asserted himself as one of the most right-wing politicians among Republicans. From a rhetorical point of view, on the other hand, it can question us more.
Why does he feel such a need to hammer home what should go without saying, a fortiori for LR activists, who are clearly those to whom he is addressing in the context of this primary? The answer lies in a fundamental rule of rhetoric: the principle of relevance. It’s pretty basic: as listeners, we assume that speakers do not speak without reason. If they take the trouble to formulate a statement, it is because this statement was not obvious. And so, when we hear someone insistently hammering out what should be obvious, subconsciously we tend to look for a deeper meaning. This is how speakers produce the implicit: they make us hear something they have not said. In this case, if Eric Ciotti takes the time to clarify that he is truly right-wing (no far right, hard right or firm right, no, right), it is perhaps that his opponents, they are not really! This is how, by contrast, he manages to tax his opponents as soft or moderate, without having to express it clearly.
It is not a principle that is specific to politics. This applies to each and every one of us. This explains why we can feel attacked by a colleague who throws in a meeting: “Me, you know, I work a lot.” Spontaneously, we will want to reply “but me too !”, because we feel that there may be an implicit attack behind it. Conversely, if we want to imply that one of our competitors is not completely honest, it suffices to say: “I, you know, I might be expensive, but I play by the rules.” Everyone will understand. Talking about yourself can be a very effective way to talk about others!
But this does not apply to all hammering strategies of course, and besides I have found you a spicy archive. Listen to what a certain Manuel Valls said twenty years ago. It was during the debates organized as part of the primary which, remember, had ended up appointing François Hollande as the candidate of the PS: “No one here has a monopoly on the left. This is where I feel deeply on the left (…) And when I talk about security it’s because I am on the left (…) When I talking about secularism is because I am on the left (…) And when I speak of debt reduction, it is because I am on the left (…) And because I am on the left, I would like us to tell the truth. “
We find exactly the same hammering strategy, but at the time, the effect produced was radically different, precisely because Manuel Valls was perceived as embodying the right wing of the PS. This means that, in this case, the principle of relevance works against the use. Result: score of 5% for those who needed to specify that they were indeed on the left … in the primary on the left! And I believe that, for us, all this is rich in teaching.
Words matter. The simple fact of formulating a statement already implies recognizing that this statement was not obvious. Let us remember this, because this principle does not apply only to politicians. It also applies to each and every one of us, on a daily basis!