It is, in any case, a way to get back in motion after a long false flat which was beginning to worry the majority. Since the formation of the government, the Head of State seemed like elsewhere, outside the domestic political scene. Exclusively concerned with international matters. He also participated in a European summit in Brussels on Tuesday.
Of course, there is the war in Ukraine, but since Elisabeth Borne does not communicate either, that she herself is engaged in her own campaign in Calvados, and indeed the majority had until then no leader, nor even incarnation a few days before a crucial electoral deadline: the legislative elections.
It is, of course, a tactic that aims not to give a hold, not to serve as a target for the adversary. By splitting as little as possible. No more talking about pension reform for example, and the age of 65 is no longer a “totem”, says the head of government. This furtive, almost surreptitious campaign model is the one followed by Emmanuel Macron in the first round of the presidential election. He did not do badly for him since he had come out on top by progressing by 4 points and a million votes compared to 2017.
The Head of State is trying to do the trick again. In the presidential election, his renewal was obvious for lack of a credible alternative, and the Le Pen scarecrow was enough to mobilize in the second round. In the legislative elections, it is the logic of the institutions which is supposed to offer him a majority in the form of evidence and the Mélenchon scarecrow must be enough to rally in the second round, especially if the left rallied to the Insoumis achieves a good score in the first round.
Until then, Emanuel Macron is therefore applying himself to staging a form of continuity of government action from one five-year term to another, on Health for example with the announcement of a “major conference” as soon as this summer which seems to echo the Grenelle of the first term. On Education, Thursday, in Marseille where the President will go with his new Minister Pap Ndiaye, in particular for the follow-up of the massive investments launched by the government last year for the schools of the city.
This tactic is not without risks: first on the electoral level. The parliamentary majority is not acquired until the voters have voted. And then especially afterwards? The uncertainties, the ambiguities which remain on the course of this second five-year term are fraught with threats if the subjects which will not have been explicitly debated during the campaign reappear tomorrow in the streets.