what is the media strategy of Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal at the end of the campaign?

The President of the Republic and the Prime Minister are increasing their media interventions before the European election on June 9. If they risk fueling the “sanction vote” reflex, the executive couple believes that, in view of the polls, there is more to gain than to lose.

In this last week of the campaign, Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal are increasing the number of interviews. This media omnipresence is a risky strategy. Firstly because it is controversial. The oppositions contacted Arcom so that the intervention of the Head of State, Thursday June 6 on TF1 and France 2, would be deducted from the speaking time of Valérie Hayer’s list. Emmanuel Macron will speak on the evening of the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Landings and on the eve of Joe Biden’s official visit. He will discuss the international situation, in Ukraine as in Gaza, but also, undoubtedly, the stakes of the European elections.

The other risk of this all-out communication is clumsiness. Like when Gabriel Attal made a detour on Monday, leaving his interview with franceinfo, by the neighboring Radiofrance amphitheater where the candidates followed one another. He interrupted Valérie Hayer’s performance for three minutes, which caused an outcry among his opponents. Even Marine Le Pen discovered quite unique feminist accents to be outraged at the fate reserved for the Renaissance candidate. But for the majority, the omnipresence of the executive raises another, more important risk, that of fueling the “sanction vote” reflex which seems to be the main driving force behind the Bardella vote.

At the Élysée, in view of Valérie Hayer’s delay, we consider that we have more to gain than to lose by trying to remobilize the Macronist electoral base. This is what also led the Head of State to challenge Marine Le Pen for a debate that she refused, or what leads him today to grant an interview to the online media Le Crayon to urge the young people to mobilize against the rise of the far right in Europe.

A President who gets involved in the European campaign is not unheard of. Emmanuel Macron does a lot but in 2014, François Hollande appeared alongside Angela Merkel. He had also published a column and he dramatized the issue by repeating: “European issues have never been so burning.” In 2009, Nicolas Sarkozy actually organized a meeting in Nîmes to praise his European record. Each time, the oppositions were indignant and demanded that these interventions be deducted from the majority’s speaking time. And each time, the day after the vote, successive Presidents hastened to assert that no national consequences should be drawn from a European vote.