The tense situation on the border between Poland and Belarus is a delicate subject. The government spokesperson even seemed embarrassed, to the point of giving a real lesson … in the art of dodging questions.
Gabriel Attal was, in fact, the guest of the morning of France Inter Tuesday, November 16. The question asked was simple: does France support Poland’s desire to erect a wall to prevent the passage of migrants? But you know the saying: in politics, simple question, answer … complicated. “First, we have to explain what is happening at the border anyway, there is an inhuman and macabre staging by the Belarusian regime, points out the government spokesperson. Why a staging? They take thousands of migrants who are in distress. They massage them at the border. They themselves produce images such as we regularly see on our TVs. It is the regime that produces these images. For what purpose? In order to divide us. “
So, do we know what France’s position is on building this wall? Answer… No. Gabriel Attal begins his remarks by saying: “First, you have to explain what is happening at the border … “. And behind, he is content to recall facts that we already knew. This is called a framing strategy. It consists in giving a plethora of information to avoid having to specify its position. It’s an effective way… of not answering the question!
The string is a bit thick… Did Léa Salamé let herself be fooled so easily? No, of course: she asked him the question a second time, here’s the second answer: “France, what she says and Europe, what she says, is that we must enforce our borders. What she says is that she is in solidarity with the countries who are confronted with this situation. We have sent a large number of humanitarian aid to the countries concerned: Latvia, Lithuania. We are ready to do so with Poland. Frontex has been reinforced at the borders. We have sent a Civil Security helicopter, gendarmes to help them secure the border. “
“France, what she is saying is that we must ensure that our borders are respected” . So, it’s very interesting … But it still does not answer the question that was asked. Here, we have the second method to dodge a question: the bypass strategy. It consists of answering a slightly different question than the one asked. In this case, instead of commenting on the construction of the Polish wall, Gabriel Attal is content to recall France’s general position concerning European migration policy.
But you can imagine that he was not going to get away with so little expense: the question was put to him a third time. “What I’m saying, Léa Salamé, answers Gabriel Attal, it is that obviously the situation and this escalation, it saddens me. What I am saying is that I have no lesson to teach today to countries which are facing this situation. “
“So, is there nothing that shocks you about the construction of a wall on the borders of Europe?”, asks the journalist. New response from the government spokesperson: “That is not what I said, what I said, is that I have no lesson to teach. You cannot say, as you were saying earlier, that ‘we are not united and united and at the same time expect me to come and give lessons to countries which are confronted with this situation. ”
Gabriel Attal does not want “give lessons”. So that’s very good… Except nobody asked him that. He could have expressed reservations, disapproval, even condemnation, without necessarily giving lessons. In other words, instead of giving us his position, Gabriel Attal has just told us… what his position is not. This is the third classic strategy to dodge a question: no longer the circumvention, but the reversal.
So we won’t know what France’s position is on this issue? Well yes! It was enough in fact to change the channel, to listen to Clément Beaune. The Secretary of State in charge of European Affairs was, Tuesday morning, the guest of the “4V”, on France 2: “I am not for a Europe that bristles with barbed wire or is covered with walls, and so we have this debate between Europeans. We have to be honest, there are more than ten European countries today who say we have to ‘Europe is helping us finance walls. France has not supported this yet. ”
This time, there is a clear position expressed by a member of the French government. So, what was preventing Gabriel Attal from answering this? We must realize that we are here on an ultra-sensitive diplomatic issue. Gabriel Attal’s words are not only valid for the government, they are binding on France. It is understandable that he prefers to remain in the background on this issue, to let the ministers directly concerned formulate the official position.
And that’s something that strikes me as interesting. The three strategies used by Gabriel Attal have a name, in everyday language we call it making the tongue. In the vast majority of cases, politicians use it to evade questions to which we have a right to expect an answer. But it also happens that these strategies appear as an understandable, even legitimate, means of protection. This is something, I believe, that we should keep in mind. In rhetoric, it is not always the procedures that are questionable. It is also, sometimes, the use which is made of it.