The French are waiting for Emmanuel Macron to “acknowledge his defeat” according to Stéphane Zumsteeg of Ipsos

According to the director of the Politics and Opinion department of the Ipsos institute, the French are also expecting “a “real change” in politics”, while the consultations to choose a new Prime Minister are not yet over.

“We are getting into the hard stuff, we are going to go from a situation of incomprehension to impatience”, analysis Tuesday September 3 on franceinfo Stéphane Zumsteeg director of the Politics and Opinion department of the Ipsos institute, while the consultations to lead to the choice of a Prime Minister capable of avoiding censorship have not yet resulted in an appointment to Matignon.

According to him, “The French still do not understand the President’s decision to dissolve the National Assembly”they “consider it was a bad thing” and they “don’t understand” no more, the fact “that the president gives the impression of playing a game of cat and mouse with the French and the political staff.” “This could turn into exasperation,” he warned, and “This contributes to widening the gap between the French and the political class.”

“I think that what the French expect from Emmanuel Macron is that he recognizes his defeat in the legislative elections, and that all this translates, beyond simple posturing, into a real change in government policy.”says Stéphane Zumsteeg. According to him, “The essential issue for Emmanuel Macron is to ensure his survival in the years he has left as President of the Republic.”considering that it “does everything to circumvent the political parties and twist their arms.” “The main thing is to refuse to have a name imposed on you, as we saw with Lucie Castets’ rather blunt refusal.”the candidate for Matignon proposed by the New Popular Front, he recalls.

“The idea is to reach the end of this period by demonstrating that it was he who proposed the Prime Minister, for him, it is fundamental.”

Stephane Zumsteeg

to franceinfo

As for the name or profile of the new Prime Minister, Stéphane Zumsteeg considers that Emmanuel Macron “does not want a political opponent at Matignon”what he would like, “He is a Prime Minister with whom he has a certain connivance, but when we look at the electoral translation, the French wanted the complete opposite.” Several names have been circulating in recent days, Bernard Cazeneuve or Xavier Bertrand, two political profiles, but also more “technical” profiles like Thierry Beaudet, president of the CESE, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council.

“The real problem for a technician today is that you don’t have an electoral base and you can’t count on the a priori support of a bloc”notes Stéphane Zumsteeg. As for the political profile, he recalls that “History is made up of all these cohabitation Prime Ministers who failed quite miserably” in the presidential elections, “like Jacques Chirac in 1988, Edouard Balladur in 1995 and Lionel Jospin in 2002”SO “When you are Prime Minister, you are the one who takes the rap, who is criticized.” “What is the point of going to damage your image and losing all your chances for the presidential election?”he wonders.

The director of the Politics and Opinion department of the Ipsos institute sees in the current situation “the result of this strategy of killing, erasing the Republicans and the Socialist Party that Emmanuel Macron has undertaken since 2017”. “These parties are not dead, they are coming back”but “Despite everything, it doesn’t work, institutions no longer work when you have three forces”, because “from the moment you no longer have two large blocs, still with this two-round majority vote, you have an assembly which is no longer as easily governable as before.”