From our special correspondent in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine),
The only large rally in a first-round campaign by Emmanuel Macron that is out of momentum, it is an understatement to say that the meeting organized at Paris La Défense Arena, in Nanterre, this Saturday, was expected. It was announced, a big show, “American”. And it’s true that the layout of the room, with a central stage in the shape of a hexagon, its big screen in the background, had something to think of an American presidential convention. The light, very worked, the staging, even in the speech of the candidate president, had something to impress. Also impressive is the entry of Emmanuel Macron, on a soundtrack, everything epic is needed for a presidential campaign. Bengal lights, walkabout and cheers from the room in support.
Gossips and true rugby supporters will say that it was not difficult to make the Paris Défense Arena resonate more than during Racing 92 matches, of which it is the den in the Top 14. Young people with Macron, very numerous, but a little alone in the slap, got busy there, in a surprisingly not full room. Did the Macronist campaign see a little too big by choosing the largest hall in Europe (up to 40,000 seats) opposite the Palais omnisports de Bercy (20,000 seats)?
Left leg
Emmanuel Macron also saw great speech level: more than two hours. Finally, the President of the Republic, little present in the campaign, chose to concentrate his interventions by taking his time: he had already spent almost four hours in a press conference on February 17. After having leaned clearly to the right that day (RSA conditionally, retirement at 65, etc.), Emmanuel Macron seemed to be playing on a different register this Saturday. He denounced the inequalities that reign in the country. In a form of diptych that he repeated several times and which always began with “I will never resolve myself” and most often ended with “it’s unfair! “. Sometimes described as arrogant, and while the label of “president of the rich” returns in favor of the McKinsey affair, Emmanuel Macron may have wanted to show that he had lost none of his capacity for indignation.
Example: “I will never resolve that we can save money to the detriment of the most precarious French people. “No room for subtlety: this Saturday, it was for the candidate president to strengthen his left leg. The “at the same time” is original in that it is most often divided between media sequences that lean to the right and others that lean to the left. Rarely the two mixed. To drive the point home, Emmanuel Macron has downright shelled, the air of not touching it, the great slogans of the left. “There is nothing more powerful than the quiet strength of fraternity”, like a wink to Mitterrand 1981. “A united France is that which looks itself in the face, in its plurality”, like Mitterrand 1988. And with “the mobilization is now, the fight is now”, we were no longer very far from the “Change is now” of Hollande 2012.
The constraint of the dam
But that wasn’t the most surprising thing. Evoking the scandal of private Ehpad Emmanuel Macron went so far as to launch a “our lives are worth more than their profits”, famous slogan of Olivier Besancenot and Philippe Poutou at the NPA. For good measure against Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Eric Woerth, Dominique Perben or Christian Estrosi, his right-wing supporters present, Emmanuel Macron nevertheless defended the postponement of retirement to 65 and insisted on the fact that it would be necessary pay our debt well “from 2026”. Because if we do not seem very worried about the outcome of the election, the recent tightening of voting intentions between him and Marine Le Pen, even in the second round (up to a minimum of five points only in favor of the incumbent) still had to alert: what if the left was a little too lacking at the roadblock on April 26?
Emmanuel Macron designated – of course without naming them – his opponents, at the end of the meeting: “extremists” and “hate”. Refusing to give moral lessons to far-right voters, he nevertheless also refused the trivialization of extremist ideas and remarks in the media space: “I am against political correctness and political abjectness. “After having made the rounds of its social measures, it was perhaps a way of reminding the left which hesitates of this constraint erected as a strategy for five years: it is him or the deluge. “It is the fight for progress against withdrawal, the fight for patriotism and Europe against the nationalists, described Emmanuel Macron. Basically, April’s choices are simple. Perhaps even simplistic.