Franck Louvrier considers that the speaking time of the Head of State should be more controlled by the CSA. A request already made by Valérie Pécresse, the LR candidate for the presidential election.
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Emmanuel Macron “has been holding television hostage for several weeks”, criticized Wednesday, December 15 on franceinfo Franck Louvrier, mayor Les Républicains de La Baule, while the head of state will be on television Wednesday evening for 90 minutes. Franck Louvrier was Nicolas Sarkozy’s communications advisor, when the latter was slow to declare himself a candidate for the 2012 presidential election.
franceinfo: Valérie Pécresse asks the CSA to count the speaking time of Emmanuel Macron. Is she right?
Franck Louvrier: Obviously, this program, which is not live, does not fall within the exercise of the office of the President of the Republic but rather within the framework of the presidential election. So Valérie Pécresse asks that the CSA judge Emmanuel Macron as a presumed candidate, as he did a few weeks ago with Eric Zemmour or Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012.
According to the CSA we have not entered the electoral campaign period and therefore it is a third of the speaking time of all the politicians which is reserved for the Head of State and the government. Is this rule still valid?
The difficulty is that the dates have changed. The election is earlier because the first round will take place on April 24. There, we really have the feeling that Emmanuel Macron is a candidate without saying it and therefore we want the CSA to say that he is a candidate. He has been holding television hostage for several weeks. There was the declaration at the beginning of November to take stock under the pretext of the health crisis, there is an endless press conference on the presidency of the European Union last week and this evening there are two hours of broadcast which are plus a balance sheet, not to mention the end-of-year wishes. This attitude reflects a president who is a little lonely and Valérie Pécresse is Emmanuel Macron’s worst nightmare in the situation we are in today.
The reproach on the speaking time of the president comes back to each election. This was also the case for Nicolas Sarkozy. Isn’t there a little bad faith?
At the time there was a very important announcement because we were coming out of the crisis and there was the announcement of social VAT. Tonight I don’t have the feeling that there are going to be any announced measures, it’s more of a show that is a little personal and very successful. It is perhaps a debate which seems futile in the eyes of the French but it is important in the democratic balance of the audio-visual distribution. I have the impression that the president wants to be talked about around the Christmas turkey. It’s really audiovisual abuse and I think it will be more counterproductive for him.