Here is a family photo that they had fantasized for a long time. This Monday evening, November 29, the leaders of the presidential majority pose in front of the photographers, gathered under the banner “Together Citizens!”, This “common home” that they have been promising for three years. Stanislas Guerini, general delegate of En Marche, François Bayrou, boss of Modem, Franck Riester, president of Agir and Edouard Philippe, founder of Horizons, praise “the meeting” their training, “contrary to everything that is done in the political field today”. The left wing of LREM, a time removed from the first discussions, is also involved, with ministers Olivier Dussopt for “Territories of progress” and Barbara Pompili for “In Common”.
Only one is missing: Emmanuel Macron. If the president cannot be present, since he has not yet declared his candidacy, his name is on everyone’s lips, on all screens. The choice of place, the Mutualité, in Paris, also reminds us of its presence. It is in this room that the former Minister of the Economy launched his movement, five years ago. And it is above all for him, for his re-election, that the leaders of the majority gave birth to “Ensemble Citoyens!”, The project of union of the Macronist parties.
What place will this banner hold in the campaign system? “A rather weak role, the presidential majority already existed before”, relativizes a relative of the president, recalling that “the presidential election is above all the meeting of a man or a woman with the French people”.
Translation: the head of state will lead the campaign as he sees fit. Little information is filtering out on its future strategy. “He compartmentalizes a lot”, notes a member of the majority. Only Alexis Kohler, the secretary general of the Elysee, who “access to the president’s brain”, according to a member of the macronie, is in all the secrets and decision-making. Does he know the date of entry into the campaign of Emmanuel Macron? Nothing is less sure. “I see he hasn’t decided yet”, observes a leader of the macronie. In the opinion of all, it will not be before January 19, date on which the host of the Elysée will address the MEPs within the framework of the French presidency of the Council of the European Union (PFUE). The often mentioned firing window is between the end of January and the beginning of February. But these are only speculations. “He always decides late and at the last moment”, reminds a relative to franceinfo.
“He’s obviously looking at what his predecessors have done, whether it’s timing or form.”
A relative of Emmanuel Macronto franceinfo
All the outgoing presidents running for re-election declared themselves late. Emmanuel Macron will not have invented anything. “It must take place as long as possible, it is in his interest not to declare early, slice a loved one. He knows that like in boxing, you shouldn’t be standing still in a corner. Otherwise, we get screwed in the face. And he is not still. To date, the situation is not bad. “ They are many to observe, not without delight, that “the left is very weak” in the polls, and that part of the Republicans are pulling more and more to the right of the right. The space of the center, but also of the center-right and center-left, is more than ever available.
If the idea of a campaign for his re-election is not in doubt, the project that Emmanuel Macron will carry questions. “We will have to give meaning to this second five-year term. What for? asks a macronie leader. We are going to carry out a very macronist campaign, for a five-year period of progress, by insisting, for example, on the notions of freedom, conquest, reindustrialisation, scientific innovation … “ According to the latter, Emmanuel Macron has already started to draw the contours of his potential second term.
“In his two addresses in July and November, he brought out a vision. He does not need to be a candidate to chart this path.”
A leader of the presidential majorityto franceinfo
The Head of State is thus committed to the reindustrialization of France or to nuclear power, by promising to relaunch the sector. Since the start of the school year, he has also announced, with his government, a series of investments and various aids. Valérie Pécresse, candidate for the LR nomination, has accused him of “burn the cash register” and the opposition accuses him of campaigning without saying so. “Clearly, Emmanuel Macron is a candidate and his speaking time is not counted as such”, blasted Jean-Luc Mélenchon, after the speech of November 9.
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That evening, in addition to praising his record and drawing his plans for the future, Emmanuel Macron called on the French to resist the “obscurantisms” and at “return of nationalism”. In his sights: Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen.
These little sentences are obviously not trivial. Before his declaration of candidacy, his entourage knows well that “it will be necessary to deliver targeted messages regularly “. This was still the case, Tuesday, November 30, when Joséphine Baker entered the Pantheon. “My France is Joséphine”, Emmanuel Macron concluded at the end of his speech, while Eric Zemmour was applying the same day.
Beyond his speeches full of winks and references to 2022, Emmanuel Macron also abandons his presidential suit without being asked to go back down into the arena. It happened twice against Xavier Bertrand during the travels of the Head of State in Hauts-de-France. In mid-November, during an icy handshake, the two men slacken themselves in particular on the Ascoval file. “You may know better than everyone else”, thus annoys the president, before subtly returning to his elected status the one who has failed to become his opponent in the presidential election.
The tense exchange between Emmanuel Macron and Xavier Bertrand pic.twitter.com/S5LxjYcGdg
– BFMTV (@BFMTV) November 19, 2021
Another episode, during the congress of mayors of France (AMF), on November 18, in Paris. Faced with criticism from local elected officials, the president shoots a few arrows. “I assume not to have been mayor. But anyway, we are celebrating a lot De Gaulle at the moment, it is possible that he also had this fault”, he says. An attitude that its supporters justify by the need to respond to its opponents. “The moments of confrontation do not scare him. Whether it is at the AMF or against Bertrand, he does not want to stand idly by, he will not let it go”, slips to franceinfo a leader of the majority.
These confrontations and these subliminal messages are not enough to formalize the outlines of a pre-campaign. In the second line, the heavy artillery is organized. “I assume to be in campaign so that the president is in prospecting”, explains a leader of the macronie. A frenzy has seized the presidential majority, which has launched since the start of the school year an incalculable number of field operations, committees, working groups… Which is not necessarily to everyone’s taste internally. Some point to a risk of scattering.
“I am not so much a fan of this multiplication of committees, we will have to restore order when Emmanuel Macron enters the campaign.”
A majority parliamentarianto franceinfo
“I’m sure the president will whistle the end of the recreation”, reassures this deputy. First there was the operation “five more years”, launched by LREM to praise the head of state’s record, then the operation “listening”, also conducted by LREM, to collect the opinions of the French on this assessment and their expectations for a second term.
Working groups led by experts on around thirty themes are also working on the future program. They will be helped in particular by ambassadors from civil society. From “relay”, according to the deputy Roland Lescure who is piloting this project with Anne de Bayser, former deputy secretary general of the Elysee. “The idea is to have one or two relays per theme. We are in a campaign without a candidate, we have to be able to work while waiting”, he justifies.
These devices will have to find their articulation with the local committees of the Minister of Overseas Territories, Sébastien Lecornu, that certain macronists – right-wing tendency – would like to see Emmanuel Macron’s campaign director. According to the Minister’s entourage, 200 committees have been created and 200 more are being formed. The idea is to allow mayors who are not members of LREM to support the re-election of the Head of State. “The objective is to show that the president is not above ground, not disconnected from the territories”, we explain.
Finally, there is the collection of 500 sponsorships from mayors, entrusted to parliamentarians. “Obviously, the challenge is to go beyond 2017, not so much in terms of quantity as in political and geographic enlargement”, details the entourage of Christophe Castaner, the boss of LREM deputies. Some are a little frustrated that they are not more actively involved in the campaign. “We take care of the form and little of the substance at this stage. I hope that we can also be forces of proposals”, worries an LREM deputy. “We cannot work on the bottom with 1,500 people, retorts one of his colleagues. It was rather successful for Macron to work like that, there is no reason to change the model. ” Though. 2017 is not 2022.