The last straight line. Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France insoumise), Marine Le Pen (National Rally), Fabien Roussel (PCF), Jean Lassalle (Let’s Resist!), Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (Stand Up France) and Nathalie Arthaud (Worker’s Struggle) participated, Thursday March 31, on the political program of France 2, “Elysée 2022”. Franceinfo has verified eight key statements from this evening.
1Is Nicolas Dupont-Aignan right to say that 5,700 hospital beds were closed during the Covid-19 crisis? True
“Emmanuel Macron still closed 5,700 hospital beds in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis.”
Nicolas Dupont-Aignanin “Elysée 2022”
The candidate of Debout la France is telling the truth for the year 2020. According to data from Drees, attached to the Ministry of Health, more than 5,700 full hospital beds were closed that year. This drop “a little more pronounced” than previous years can be explained “by the context of the epidemic”according to the Ministry of Health, with “many double rooms transformed into single rooms to limit contagion”.
2Is Fabien Roussel right to claim the support of the Left Radicals? True
“There is also the MRC, the Left Radicals, the Republican and Socialist Left, the New Socialist Left. Parties that have chosen to join us during this campaign.”
Fabien Rousselin “Elysée 2022”
By listing his supporters, the communist candidate is telling the truth. When he mentions “Left Radicals”, he refers to the LRDG movement and not to the PRG (Radical Left Party) which announced three days ago that it would not give voting instructions in the presidential election. He had previously supported Christiane Taubira, when she was still in contention, before withdrawing, for lack of sponsorship. “Faced with the chaos of the division on the left, the PRG will not give any voting instructions”can we read in a press release dated March 28.
3Are there 9 million poor people in France and 300,000 homeless people, as Jean-Luc Mélenchon asserts? True
“In the country, there are 9 million poor people. I can’t stand it.”
Jean-Luc Melenchonin “Elysée 2022”
The candidate of La France insoumise actually gives the right order of magnitude: in 2019, there were 9.2 million people living below the poverty line in our country, according to INSEE.
“You see, 300,000 homeless people revolts me, but really very deeply.”
Jean-Luc Melenchonin “Elysée 2022”
Here too, it is true. In its 27th annual report on “the state of poor housing in France”published at the end of January, the Abbé-Pierre Foundation mentioned this figure of “300,000 homeless people”.
4Are 63% of sexual assaults the work of strangers, as Marine Le Pen assures us? False
“93% of thefts without violence in transport in Ile-de-France are the work of foreigners, 63% of sexual assaults, 66% of thefts with violence.”
Marine Le Penin “Elysée 2022”
Marine Le Pen’s statement is not very clear: she first mentions transport in Ile-de-France, before seeming to generalize her point. The figures they cite are, in any case, taken from a study by the Ministry of the Interior in 2018, which only concerns public transport and cannot be generalized. It should also be noted that outside of Ile-de-France, the figure drops from 66% to 27%. In 91% of cases, sexual violence against women is committed by someone known to the victim, her spouse or ex-spouse in 47% of cases, according to government data.
5Will the next tenant of the Elysée be at the head of the European Union for six months, as Mélenchon suggests? Confused
“I tell you that if I am elected, I will replace Mr Macron at the head of the European Union for six months, that is half the time until July.”
Jean-Luc Melenchonin “Elysée 2022”
The LFI candidate tangles his brushes. The French presidency of the Council of the European Union runs until June 30, 2022. The future tenant of the Elysée will therefore only occupy this position for a few weeks, his mandate officially starting on May 13 at the latest, after the handover of power.
6Is Marine Le Pen right to assure that Emmanuel Macron is “against self-defense”? True
“Emmanuel Macron said: ‘I am against self-defense.'”
Marine Le Penin “Elysée 2022”
This requires a bit of recontextualization. If the Head of State pronounced this sentence well during a trip to Charente-Maritime, Thursday March 31, it was in reaction to a news item concerning the neighboring department of Charente: there, a farmer was indicted for murder after shooting an individual who broke into his home, reports France 3.
Emmanuel Macron reacted by considering that we were in a “Rule of law”. “Everyone must have security and it is the duty of public authorities to ensure it.he said at the microphone of Europe 1. But I am opposed to self-defense. So that’s very clear and it’s intractable because otherwise it becomes the Wild West. And I do not want a country where weapons proliferate and where it is considered that it is up to the citizens to defend themselves”. In other words, the President of the Republic wants the French to rely on the police to ensure their safety.
7Is Jean-Luc Mélenchon right to affirm that “140 billion of public money from the State, from local authorities, are delegated to cabinets” every year? False
“140 billion of public money from the State, local authorities, are delegated to cabinets [de conseil].”
Jean-Luc Melenchonin “Elysée 2022”
During her hearing, in January, before the Senate commission of inquiry into the growing influence of these consulting firms in public policies, the Minister of Transformation and the Public Service, Amélie de Montchalin, gave a completely different order. of magnitude since it estimated that the costs in advice amounted to 140 million – and not billions – of euros, in 2020.
Moreover, according to the Senate report published in mid-March, “State consultancy expenditure in the broad sense exceeded one billion euros in 2021”. Even if this costing of consulting services is incomplete (the senators did not have access to all of the orders placed by the many agencies that depend on the ministries), we are obviously very far from the figure put forward by the LFI candidate.
8Is Nathalie Arthaud right to assert that Volodymyr Zelensky benefited from tax havens? True
“He was also well known for his corruption and the use of tax havens.”
Nathalie Arthaudin “Elysée 2022”
Nathalie Arthaud attacked the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, assuring that before the war, he “was also well known for his corruption and the use of tax havens”. The former actor, elected head of Ukraine in 2019, was indeed part international leaders pinned in the Pandora Papers scandal in 2021. Volodymyr Zelensky held a stake in a front company registered in the British Virgin Islands, a state placed on the list of tax havens by France in 2020.