The anniversary ceremony of the liberation of Bormes-les-Mimosas scheduled for Friday August 19 is one of the summer meetings of the President of the Republic. A commemoration which was originally scheduled for Wednesday evening but which was postponed to this Friday due to the storms which hit the Mediterranean coast. On vacation since July 30 at Fort Brégançon, located in the Var town, Emmanuel Macron is a regular at this ceremony, since he has attended it since 2018, and during which he traditionally gives a speech. This will be his first public appearance, two weeks after retiring to the Var coast.
Thursday evening, the Head of State chaired from Fort Brégançon an interministerial crisis unit following the deadly storms that hit Corsica in order to anticipate the measures to be taken on the island.
>> Storms in Corsica: follow the latest information live
This year, the Head of State has been very discreet. No big crowd with holidaymakers like in 2018 or reception like in 2019, with Vladimir Poutine, or in 2020 with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. In 2020, he also made an emergency trip to Lebanon after the deadly explosion in the port of Beirut. Last summer, he presided over health defense councils by videoconference to follow the evolution of the Covid-19 epidemic.
Of this presidential summer, it is above all a question of his outings at sea. Two images indeed emerge from the holidays of the President of the Republic: one on which we can see Emmanuel Macron in a tricolor kayak off the fort, the other on a jet ski. Symbol of a sensitivity to the protection of the environment still poorly anchored in the eyes of its environmental detractors. “It’s a bit of a string to switch from jet-skiing to canoeing and presenting it as an effort at sobriety, it’s disarmingly null“, tackled Julien Bayou (EELV).
But for the rest, the retreat at Brégançon took place as the Elysée wanted to see it described, namely studious. Far from the cameras, and vacationers. His entourage let it be known that he needed to take a step back after the spring election sequence but that he remained mobilized. Fort Brégançon is a sort of Elysée on the sea with all the equipment for working, making international calls and monitoring crisis situations, as was the case last year with the capture of Kabul by the Taliban.
The Élysée insists on the intensity of its activity and took stock: 12 phone calls to foreign heads of state, hour-by-hour monitoring of the progress of the fires, multiple calls made to elected officials. Evidenced by his call Thursday, August 18 to Gilles Simeoni, the President of the Executive Council of Corsica, to show him all his support and tell him that he had asked the Minister of the Interior to return to the island Thursday after the storms. murderers who left at least five dead and 20 injured. Last week, it was also at his request that Elisabeth Borne went to Gironde following the resumption of fires in Landiras.
This evening, I want to express my support and that of the Nation to the Corsicans who have been hard hit. I am thinking of the victims and their families. Thank you to the rescue forces mobilized to save lives and help the affected residents. Tonight, be careful.
—Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 18, 2022
A president who therefore delegates, and who tweets to react to current events such as his message posted Thursday on the social network in support “to the hard-hit Corsicans”. He also co-signed a column with four other foreign leaders to call for the development of vaccine production around the world. He also responded to the Lebanese press on the occasion of the two years of operation in Beirut.
Emmanuel Macron has prepared for a busy recovery. The back-to-school council of ministers scheduled for August 24, the National Council for Refoundation, whose purpose remains unclear but on which the president “advanced“, assures one of his advisers.
‘He has his calendar, and even without an absolute majority in the Assembly, he intends to apply it’
A close friend of the Élyséeat franceinfo
At the start of the school year, he will be very present, anticipates a collaborator in power. The lines of force have already been sketched in his July 14 interview. Energy sobriety first of all, both to be able to do without Russian gas and to accelerate the ecological transition. Then full employment, which appears to him as “heart of the battle“, with the launch of the unemployment insurance reform, the development of apprenticeship. Autumn, the moment when a reflection could also begin on the duration of working time, before perhaps discussing of a pension reform.