This is exactly what Emmanuel Macron did in Aubervilliers at the end of the training day for the new candidates of the presidential majority for the legislative elections. He designated and named the enemy of the future ballot: Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Everything was done behind closed doors of course, but the next day in the media, the elements of language given by the president were in place. Gaspard Gantzer’s analysis.
Do you know what Emmanuel Macron said to the parliamentary candidates and more generally how the elements of language are put in place?
Gaspard Gantzer: Emmanuel Macron has distributed elements of language to all of his deputies. He behaved like a majority leader, almost a coach, who gave very specific elements that had to be repeated afterwards on the markets and throughout the legislative campaign to fight against Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his candidates. .
Is it traditionally the role of the Head of State to be the communication director for the future deputies of the majority?
All the successive Heads of State and their entourage will always tell you that the Head of State is above parties and electoral contingencies. But in practice, since François Mitterrand and the beginning of the 1980s, the Presidents of the Republic have always watched the legislative elections very closely. Some have invested more than others, Nicolas Sarkozy for example and Emmanuel Macron decides to take a new step because in the absence of Prime Minister, it is he who leads the legislative campaign.
And the change of gear poses no problem since between the two rounds of the presidential Emmanuel Macron had chosen to flatter Jean-Luc Mélenchon by choosing to take up one of his flagship proposals during his meeting in Marseille.
Ecological planning was a measure of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. When did Emmanuel Macron choose this strategy of flattering then targeting?
From the evening of the first round, he chose to use the words of Mélenchonism to defend to take up all the proposals because he knows that in political communication, the use of words and concepts is fantastically effective in reaching the public. ear and heart of voters. But from the evening of the second round, he decided to reverse the logic, especially when the union on the left was achieved, especially when he saw that his designated opponent was the block around Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Doing political communication is doing strategy, it is also designating an adversary.
Do you remember such a radical change of position for electoral purposes?
It’s obviously extremely rare, but in another register Nicolas Sarkozy was elected in 2007, he first took the left as his opponent in view of the second round, then once the second round was over, he decided to proceed with a opening and he had been extremely kind to the left to bring it back to it in view of the presidential election.
Emmanuel Macron’s offensive on the Nupes could benefit from a boost from his very leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who by refusing to stand in the legislative elections is weakening his image in this political sequence, by offering the presidential majority an opportunity to weaken it a little more.