“April 24 is a referendum for or against ecology.“ Eight days before the second round of the presidential election, this is the image used by Emmanuel Macron to define one of the issues of the ballot. The president-candidate LREM, who intends to convince the French to re-elect him against Marine Le Pen, concluded a week rich in trips and interviews with his first meeting between the two rounds, in Marseille, on Saturday April 16.
In a city that voted more than 31% for LFI candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon last Sunday, the Head of State therefore continued his strategy of appealing to left-wing voters by rolling out a series of environmental measures. . And this, after having multiplied the concessions, whether on its pension reform or on the deconjugalization of the allowance for disabled adults.
Between two football references, Emmanuel Macron said this time he heard the “strong message from voters” to put the environment “at the heart of [sa] campaign and years to come in France”just like the latest IPCC report, which gives governments three years to react.
“We must give a new perspective for April 24 and for the years to come.”
Emmanuel Macronat a meeting in Marseille
“We must reconcile the country through a paradigm shift, through a new ambition” on the environment, he said. In the garden of the Pharo, which overlooks the Old Port of Marseille, he therefore spoke about climate and energy transition to some 3,000 people (according to the figure of the organizers, but there was still room in the park) who came to listen standing, under a summer sun.
In the polls, if he keeps a small lead for the moment for the second round, the dam of the “republican front” no longer appears as solid as in the past. “The objective of the speech is to say: ‘We heard the message of Sunday and the fact that 30% of people went to candidates who carry an ecological and social project’assumes his team.
When the Extinction Rebellion movement began a blocking action in the center of Paris to talk about climate issues, the president-candidate first wanted to recall the progress of his five-year term. “For five years we fought”, he assured. He thus cited the abandonment of flagship projects such as Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport (Loire-Atlantique), praised his international action and established a long list of measures ranging from thermal renovation of housing to the conversion of polluting vehicles. “We have been twice as fast to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as during the previous five years, said the candidate. But very clearly, the IPCC told us that it [suffisait] not.”
“If we want to respect the Paris agreements, we have to go twice as fast. And you know what, we’re going to do it!”
Emmanuel Macronat a meeting in Marseille
Aware of the delay taken by France, Emmanuel Macron wanted to make some announcements. He thus promised that his “the next prime minister will be[it] directly responsible for ecological planning”a concept dear to Jean-Luc Mélenchon. This Prime Minister will be supported by two ministers. The first, in charge of energy planning, will have to “to make France the first nation to get out of gas, oil and coal”in particular thanks to nuclear power, renewable energies and “to a hydrogen strategy”.
“It demonstrates irrefutably the importance we will place on this fight of the century.”
Emmanuel Macronat a meeting in Marseille
The second minister, in charge of territorial ecological planning, will be responsible for “to organize with local elected officials the environmental transition in each territory” with “a decentralization agenda massive”. Public transport, rail and river freight and the thermal renovation of housing will be heart of the missions of this new ministry. “The policy that I will pursue in the next five years will be ecological or it will not be”, summed up the president-candidate. But he didn’t overturn the table. “I don’t believe in downsizing.he warned. To finance our hospitals, we need to produce and work more.”
“Our challenge is to make a greener economy, not less economy for ecology.”
Emmanuel Macronat a meeting in Marseille
The president-candidate also said he wanted to create a “nature festival”, like the music festival, which could be held every year at the end of May, “moment of national unity around our landscapes”. Still evoking short circuits, the planting of 140 million trees, the fight against plastic pollution or against open landfills, Emmanuel Macron therefore sought to send a strong message to French people sensitive to the ecological question.
But not sure that this speech will make it possible to change the glance of its critics, like the association Greenpeace, which castigates a “catastrophe assessment” in matters of ecology and describes the outgoing president as “champion of promises, but not deeds”.
In collaboration with the association Les Shifters, franceinfo had also established before the first round a detailed analysis of Emmanuel Macron’s program. He was judged “distant” of France’s climate objectives. The president has not explicitly reconsidered his renunciation of the ban on glyphosate or his broken promises, such as doubling the capacity of wind and solar energy. He also did not mention the condemnation of France in 2021 for its climate inaction, in “The Case of the Century”.