Tuesday, November 9, Emmanuel Macron addressed the French in an exceptionally long speech since it lasted 27 minutes. No doubt: it was the first speech of the head of state’s candidate for the 2022 presidential election. This can be seen at a point that is both precise and technical: its structure.
Let us leave aside the first quarter of the speech, in which Emmanuel Macron evokes the health crisis, as well as the last quarter, during which he evokes the major political challenges to come. Let us focus on the central part, in which he discusses his balance sheet and draws up perspectives.
One word, in particular, came up often. “Work therefore continues to be our compass, the common thread of our action. It is through work and more work that we will be able to preserve our social model. It is also through work that we will enable our elders. to live longer with them. It is through the work of all that we will be able to continue to make our State more solid “, said Emmanuel Macron. Work is therefore the stake and, even, the value which serves as a compass for all its action.
In rhetorical terms, this construction of discourse is an anaphoric structure. The anaphora is the figure consisting in stringing together sentences that begin with the same formula. The anaphoric structure consists of the same thing but on the scale of an entire text, each part of which begins with the same formula. In short, it is a kind of plan and it is very practical. This indeed makes it possible to give a coherence – or, at least, an appearance of coherence – to what would otherwise be only a simple enumeration of observations, ideas or proposals.
This is what the President of the Republic did and it sometimes bordered on acrobatics. “Finally, it is through everyone’s work that we will be able to build our energy independence. Every day we experience the consequences of the current situation: the full more expensive at the pump, the increasing gas and electricity bill. we live in recent weeks requires urgent responses “, explained the head of state. If we can see the link between work and the preservation of our social model, the relationship between work, energy independence and prices at the pump is more tenuous. In this intervention, work is therefore a great slogan in which all government action must be shoehorned into.
This is not an opportunistic formula because it is a value that he has been hammering out since the start of his five-year term. On the other hand, there are strategic reasons for emphasizing this word so much now. Indeed, it allows him to invite himself, innocently, to the table of debates which are currently animating the candidates for the nomination of the Republicans party for the presidential election who all advocate work as a cardinal point.
This anaphoric structure is particularly characteristic for its ability to bring unity to a set of disparate measures. The anaphoric structure is that of great general policy speeches or great campaign speeches. Marine Le Pen, for example, had used the concept of freedom as a pivot in her big meeting in September 2021. Anne Hidalgo had, for her part, erected respect as a compass. Emmanuel Macron himself, in April 2019, inaugurated the second period of his mandate, after the “yellow vests” crisis, punctuating his press conference with the same formula: “The art of being French.”
Since then, times have changed and so has the flagship concept. On the other hand, the process remains: it is that of a speech which gives great prospects for the future. A few months before a presidential election, in politics, it has a name: campaigning.