(Cergy-Pontoise) For his first trip since his re-election, Emmanuel Macron plunged into the excitement and bustle of the market in a working-class district, affirming his desire to give a more social face to his second five-year term.
Posted at 9:05 a.m.
Updated at 9:23 a.m.
” I’m coming ! “: at the Saint-Christophe market in Cergy (Val-d’Oise), a city where Jean-Luc Mélenchon obtained 48% of the votes in the first round of the presidential election, the Head of State found, with obvious pleasure, the agitated atmosphere of crowd baths, multiplying handshakes, hugs, self-portraits and more or less long eye-to-eye exchanges.
The two-hour streak gave his security service cold sweats, which had to deploy the umbrella against a spray of cherry tomatoes that did not hit the president, as residents rushed to approach him.
“It’s as if the campaign was continuing,” laughed a member of his entourage, just over six weeks before the legislative elections.
Announced at the last moment, this trip to about thirty kilometers from Paris followed two days during which Emmanuel Macron remained out of sight after soberly celebrating his victory with 58.5% of the vote against Marine Le Pen.
“Macron president! “, ” well done ! and “Congratulations!” “, shouted many onlookers, while some” Macron resign! were tossed between the stalls.
The Head of State assured that he would “continue to go into the field to listen, convince and then act”. “Being in contact” while the polls of the campaign have highlighted its lack of proximity and taking into account the difficulties of the French.
“Repository of Wrath”
“Even though the results (of the presidential election) have not yet been promulgated, I do not forget that the commitments I made were not simply campaign commitments,” he promised.
In fact, the inhabitants of this very popular district of Cergy mainly challenged him on the high cost of living, pensions, employment difficulties and the RSA.
“He listened to me, that’s good, but I’m now waiting for him to act”, testified Fatima, employee and mother, who “struggles to make ends meet”.
“I am the repository of these angers […] I want everyone to work together to find solutions, ”explained Emmanuel Macron. By indicating that he chose Cergy to “bring a message of consideration and ambition”, with the desire to give these neighborhoods “throughout (his) mandate the means to move forward”.
“In the poorest neighborhoods, whether in cities or rural areas, we really need to recreate the conditions for real and effective equality of opportunity,” he added. “It is the only way to ward off this mistrust” which has “settled in with regard to public affairs” as well as this “feeling of abandonment” expressed by the inhabitants.
“For your new government, appoint people who know us and who act, not technocrats! “, launched a fifty-something.
Without mentioning names, Emmanuel Macron affirmed that the prime minister he would appoint to replace Jean Castex will be “someone who is attached to the social question, the environmental question and the productive question”.
“I believe in going beyond, political color does not say everything,” he also pointed out to a journalist questioning him about the possibility of seeing a left-wing personality named. “Jean Castex came from the right. He carried out one of the most social policies of the last decades, because he is also a man of heart and he has social fiber, ”added the head of state.
The appointment of the prime minister is expected by May 13. Speculation is also rife about a major government reshuffle, less than seven weeks before the first round of legislative elections on June 12 and 19.
Aimed by a spray of cherry tomatoes
Emmanuel Macron was targeted, without being hit, by a jet of cherry tomatoes.
While the president was chatting with onlookers in the middle of the stalls, several bags containing cherry tomatoes were thrown in his direction, without reaching him.
The head of state’s security service briefly deployed an “umbrella” to protect him before the president went to the covered market.
The entourage of Mr. Macron for his part disputed that a projectile had reached the President of the Republic, explaining that the umbrella had been opened due to the agitation of the crowd.