Tuesday January 4, 8:46 p.m. The debates finally died down in the Assembly when a “excluded” from Parisian is displayed on the cell phones of politicians and journalists. This is a long interview with the President of the Republic carried out by readers of the newspaper. The topics are numerous, but it is a small sentence that will ignite the powder until derail, for the second time, the examination of the vaccination pass by the deputies. “Well, there, the unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off. And so we will continue to do it, until the end. That’s the strategy”, says Emmanuel Macron.
The opposition movement is unanimous and immediate. From rebellious France to the National Rally, parliamentarians are indignant at the familiarity of the Head of State but also at what is interpreted as a desire to divide the French. These statements, however, are anything but improvised. As proof, the interview was reread by several Elysée advisers who did not modify it. “There was no discussion of the term”, slips an advisor to Emmanuel Macron. “All this is thought out, the strategy is millimeter”, believes political scientist Rémi Lefebvre. The Palace knew very well what reactions would elicit this little phrase. “We know very well that this is the word that stands out, but it is something that is assumed. It is in the order of political combat”, defends this same adviser.
The day after this shock interview, the majority united behind the president by repeating his words. “We must stop the hypocrisy! A small minority poses a threat to the population, well, yes, including for their good, we will piss them off”, annoys Jean-Marc Dumontet, producer of shows in Paris and close to the Head of State. At the Elysée, we defend ourselves from everything “contempt” Where “little phrase” but we hope that this kind of talk “will help to awaken certain consciences”. We congratulate each other “reactions from doctors” who endorse these statements.
“It is a president who ‘goes down in the arena’ to protect all the French thanks to the vaccine.”
This is the image sought by the Elysee: a president who goes into battle to protect the French. The familiarity of the subject is there to play the proximity. “We must stop playing sissy. Sometimes the president speaks like the French and he understood that he was better understood by the French when he spoke like them”, assures François Patriat, the leader of LREM senators, who slips that “on the side of the antivax, there is much more brutal”.
The idea is to bet on this silent majority against those who refuse vaccination. “We showed enough tolerance to dare to talk cash and say what everyone thinks, without embellishment”, slips a ministerial adviser. “You don’t have to go looking for noon at 2 p.m., the president talks cash, trash and says out loud what the French think in a whisper”, wants to believe François Patriat. “What the President of the Republic said, I hear it everywhere”, confirmed the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, to the senators.
The majority deputies think none the less. “We have nevertheless tried everything in a year (…) Today, all that remains is the constraint to motivate those who remain”, supports Damien Adam, deputy for Seine-Maritime. Others, however, are more circumspect about the choice of words. “The only thing I can tell you is that deep down he’s right”, slips the deputy Sacha Houlié, without commenting on the chosen terms. “We can be questioning about the form”, concedes a ministerial adviser who has more moods on the other remarked statement of the president: “When my freedom threatens the freedom of others, I become irresponsible. An irresponsible person is no longer a citizen.” “Irresponsible, yes. But ‘no longer a citizen’ may be too much”, considers this advisor.
With his interview, Emmanuel Macron adopts a “stratagem of very clear cleavage, which makes it possible to remobilize its electorate while creating a form of hysterization of the debate”, analyzes political scientist Rémi Lefebvre. “It is addressed to its electorate and to the world of caregivers, even if one cannot say it since it must in theory be addressed to all the French”, complete a heavyweight of the majority.
The Head of State manages in any case to place himself at the center of the political game, rejoices the MoDem deputy Christophe Jerretie. “He is once again the master of time. The proof: you all talk about it, the politicians only talk about it, so he won.”
“The president understood that the oppositions have become political commentators and that they have an ambiguous position on the vaccine pass.”
Christophe Jerretie, MoDem deputyto franceinfo
The epidermal reactions in the Assembly seem to prove that the Head of State has hit the mark. “We just have to be careful that he does not find himself facing a common opposition front. This could ultimately be damaging to public opinion.”, warns a ministerial adviser.
For Rémi Lefebvre, the President of the Republic has very well studied the surveys of Cevipof, which show in particular left-wing electorates polarized on the question of the vaccine. “He therefore seeks to hold the discourse of reason in the face of antivax to seduce this left-wing electorate, especially since he cannot do so on other registers, because he is not going to change economic policy …” explains the political scientist.
On the side of LR, we smell the trap set by the president in the middle of the electoral campaign. The Republicans group has been divided since the start of the week in the Assembly on the attitude to adopt vis-à-vis the vaccine pass, and Emmanuel Macron’s remarks are likely to focus a little more on opponents of the bill . “The strategy is to try to isolate the LR opposition and, indeed, the group finds itself still jostled, admits LR deputy Philippe Gosselin. You can see the hole and the spikes below… You have to be careful not to fall into the trap, but it is not easy. “
“If the text on the vaccination pass is there to piss people off, we can’t vote for it… And on the other hand, we don’t want to be thought of as oblivious or irresponsible.”
Philippe Gosselin, LR deputyto franceinfo
By polarizing the debate, the head of state would seek to weaken Valérie Pécresse compared to her far-right competitors, believes the LR opposition. “He wants to rob a part of the population with an electoral calculation. He hopes that it will go towards radical candidatures. It is cynicism”, analyzes for his part a former candidate for the primary of the right. “The strategy is assumed, adds Philippe Gosselin. It’s a bit of the Mitterrand who instrumentalized the FN in the 1980s. But beware, the context is not the same. In the midst of a pandemic crisis, with death threats arriving in the mailboxes of parliamentarians… It is an extremely dangerous game. ” The spring poll will tell if the chosen strategy was the right one.