standoff between Emmanuel Macron and party leaders

At the end of August, all the party leaders made the trip to talk about reforms with the President of the Republic. Two and a half months later, the second meetings in Saint-Denis, scheduled for Friday November 17, risk ringing a little hollow. Manuel Bompard for LFI and Olivier Faure for the PS will not go. Ditto for Éric Ciotti for Les Républicains.

A “serious political mistake”

In a letter sent Tuesday, November 14 to Emmanuel Macron, the boss of LR justifies himself: “For several days, I had hesitated (…) Your absence from the march against anti-Semitism, among the French, convinced me definitively”, he writes. This absence is however denounced by certain executives of the right-wing party, such as Xavier Bertrand. Especially since by snubbing this meeting, LR is leaving the field open to a rival, who is precisely seeking to complete its de-demonization, the RN. From Switzerland, Emmanuel Macron castigated the attitude of the absent party leaders. “I think this is a major political mistake on the part of these leaders. It is their responsibility, but no pretext justifies it, and especially not to use the current geopolitical context“, did he declare.