Eight candidates for the presidential election spoke live Monday evening March 14 on the television program “La France face à la Guerre”, including Emmanuel Macron. It was the outgoing president’s first appearance on a major television show since his declaration of candidacy, so it was eagerly awaited. The format of the show was entirely designed for the head of state because Emmanuel Macron had warned that he would not participate in any real debate before the first round. Monday evening’s program therefore consisted of a succession of interviews, without any direct interpellation between candidates, a format which considerably limited the opportunities to break the monotony.
This is the case at least, until Fabien Roussel takes the floor. The candidate of the Communist Party then seemed affected by a curious obsession: that of “wallet”. This expression indeed came up four times in 15 minutes in his speech. Admittedly, the image is quite classic. The wallet is a somewhat old-fashioned and largely fossilized metaphor for talking about the French budget. But it is precisely in this that the word of Fabien Roussel contrasts with that of all his competitors: he prefers to speak in concrete analogies rather than in abstract concepts. And last night, alongside seven other candidates, this characteristic was obvious.
During the debate, Fabien Roussel used an anthology of metaphors, each more flowery and prepared than the other, like this sentence: “The gas station is the only place where you hold the gun, and where you get robbed.” The communist candidate pronounced it while standing up and looking at the camera, in order to address the French people directly, eye to eye. Proof, if necessary, that all these figures are elements of language written well in advance of the broadcast. There is therefore a real communication strategy behind these sentences.
The objective for Fabien Roussel is to put forward an image that contrasts with that of other political leaders, to show that he is not on the side of the elites, intellectuals, technocrats, but of the people. The proof: he speaks in a popular way, with very concrete images. In any case, this is the message he wishes to send. It goes even further than just images because the communist candidate’s words are sprinkled with metadiscursive markers, all those little words that allow us to produce a discourse about our discourse. In this case, at Fabien Roussel, we heard: “Isn’t that true? How are we going to do it? It’s not possible, huh!” It’s starting to sound like a popular language caricature all the same.
It is difficult to estimate with certainty whether this strategy is really effective. It is certain that it makes it possible to single out the speech of Fabien Roussel, during this program “France in the Face of War”, it’s one of the voices that stood out the most. Nevertheless, the process is so widely used that it can end up looking like a string, which could lead listeners to question the authenticity of the contestant.
During the show on Monday evening, another speaker also used a familiar expression, but this time with a very different result. Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the National Rally, said: “It’s a debate to be had with the big retailers who tend to [les agriculteurs] squeeze the kiki.” Marine Le Pen therefore uses the expression “tighten the kiki”, taking up the process of Fabien Roussel. But here, the figure escapes him, it contrasts radically with all the rest of the subject. It’s all the difference between a little clumsiness and a strategy that is perhaps a little too strong.