Just three weeks after his mea culpa on his statements, which may have given him the image of an arrogant man, Emmanuel Macron is he falling back into his ways? In
an interview with the ParisianTuesday evening, the Head of State declared that he had decided to “piss off” the unvaccinated “until the end” by “limiting for them, as much as possible, access to social activities”.
“The unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off. And so we will continue to do so, until the end. That’s the strategy, ”explained the President of the Republic. Words that aroused the anger of the opposition, once again leading to the suspension of the examination of the law on the vaccine pass in the National Assembly on Tuesday evening. Was this statement calculated? What impact will it have? What strategy is behind it? To understand it, 20 minutes interviewed Alexandre Eyries, HDR teacher-researcher in information and communication sciences, specializing in political communication, at the University of Burgundy, author of Political communication 3.0 (University of Dijon Eds, March 2021) and Anthropolitweet (ISTE Ed., May 2021).
Is the declaration of the Head of State calculated?
We are in a pre-election campaign, so yes, I think it is calculated. She’s meant to kick the anthill. He had already said “me, I am the one who speaks cash”; it is this policy of talking cash, of being brutally stripped down. At the same time, it is a call to collective responsibility: there are people who stubbornly refuse to be vaccinated, it is to this fringe that he is addressing. Emmanuel Macron said very clearly that if he had to piss them off, he would go all the way.
This formula may be shocking, but it comes, I repeat, while we are in the pre-campaign. He has not declared himself, there is the threat of Pécresse and Zemmour… It is a way of showing that he is the master of the clocks and the master on board. He said, “You don’t want to? Well, I will force you to do so ”. He wants to go towards coercion. We know that France is a country of rebels, as soon as there are rules, the French love to challenge them, to circumvent them. But here, it is the health of the French that is at stake.
What will be the impact of this sentence?
I think it will come down quickly. In two or three weeks, we will not talk about it. It is a way of stirring up the political coconut palm. It’s shocking, it’s astonishing, it’s questioning, but it is the lot of political communication to be much more in the happening and in small phrases than in real political projects. But basically, he has not deviated from his line, there is one constant: the goal is always to massively encourage the French to be vaccinated to get out of this situation.
What about her December mea culpa?
We almost have the impression that he is falling back into his faults. But at the same time, he was criticized for being Jupiterian. There, he goes back, he wants to reaffirm the sacred character of the presidential function, to show that he is the master of the clocks, the one who imposes the rhythm and the tempo. In this kind of declaration, we can feel his high conception of the presidential function returning.
The outputs of Sarkozy and Hollande have discredited the presidential figure. Emmanuel Macron, for his part, wishes to represidentialise the function, deliver rituals. He does not return to a Jupiterian posture because he communicates a lot with the media, but it is a way of showing that the “boat France” is in the storm, that it is pitching but that there is a captain on board who holds the helm.
But unlike his conception of the presidential function, won’t this sentence become his “Casse-toi, poor idiot” to him?
It can be, but I don’t think so. There have been statements before, like “crazy money”. French political life is used to going out, punchlines, I think that will be quickly forgotten. There will undoubtedly be other things which will come to cover this declaration.
Is the strategy to rely on the vaccinated to put pressure on the unvaccinated?
His strategy is not necessarily to “hit” on the unvaccinated, he wants to bring people back in line, bring the French to their senses by showing them that the vaccinated have made the choice of individual responsibility but also collective, to say “it is the only solution to return to life, to French life”.
The idea is also to rely on the law of numbers, on the mass phenomenon, that of the vaccinated. There are only a handful of irreducible Gauls left, but unfortunately, it is very supported by political figures, people, who are listened to, who carry an anti-ax word. Emmanuel Macron also seeks to attract the good graces of the vaccinated, who have played the game and do not understand why other people do not play it.
Is this term “piss off” shocking in the mouth of a president?
It is shocking, yes. Obviously, it’s a stain, it denotes a little bit in a course Science Po, Ena, senior official. But at the same time, we realize that he is a man like any other, that helps to humanize the character of the technocrat, very smooth, who is in control, who masters his image.
Does this break with the traditional image of the language of a president?
There is an “Obama and Trudeau” effect. They are personalities who are products of their time, of their generation. Today, the language and the posture have relaxed. Emmanuel Macron is often perceived as the candidate of the rich, the pretentious, the president of billionaires, an image that sticks to his skin. Using a more relaxed language allows him to show that he is not very far from the people, from the way of speaking of the French, which he sticks to his time.
This tradition of the “punchline” in all sauces, it has been there for a few years. Small sentences are meant to make people talk, to cause a stir, and it works. A more crude method of stripping, that can work, because it is not easy to govern France, which has a tradition of slinging. This brings him down from his ivory tower, brings him back to the level of the people.