No time to be unemployed! Even in the height of summer, politicians remain in control. A few weeks before the start of the school year, and seven months before the presidential election, the leaders of the parties do not want to disappear from the radar. Tour de France in a caravan, media controversies, postcards … 20 minutes looks at the different strategies so as not to be forgotten during the summer holidays.
1. The Tour de France
A few months away from a presidential election, many politicians are crisscrossing the country. This is particularly the case of Xavier Bertrand and Valérie Pécresse, both right-wing candidates for 2022. “Valérie Pécresse has trips every week to meet people and expose part of her program”, assures Florence Portelli, the vice-president of Île-de-France. The objective of a Tour de France is twofold: to stage thematic meetings with the French and to glean valuable support from elected officials on the ground.
For their part, communists and rebels have decided to relaunch thepolitical caravans to see the country. The former hope to make their presidential candidate, Fabien Roussel, better known. The latter want to convince the abstainers and relaunch the campaign of their leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in decline.
The little extra : We’re not going to lie to each other, a Tour de France allows you to spend a few pleasant days in the four corners of the country. In short, combine the useful with the pleasant.
2. The postcard
It’s an old trick in politics. Send, casually, a photo or a message on social networks to maintain the expectation around a political return or a candidacy. The summer holidays provide a favorable context for this strategy. Laurent Wauquiez, brilliantly re-elected at the head of his Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region last June, thus multiplies family photos on Facebook and Instagram, not without political ulterior motives. Last week, the elected LR took advantage a cinema screening for the film OSS 117 to better tackle “political correctness”, “wokism [et] all the indigenous theses ”. A roundabout way of maintaining the suspense on his potential presidential candidacy, which he could announce during his political return on August 29 at Mont Mézenc.
The little extra: Use cinema like Laurent Wauquiez or sport, like Anne Hidalgo. The mayor of Paris, who must announce his intentions at the start of the school year for 2022, used sports news to send a few messages, defending the “ecological” Olympic Games and
“Popular” of Paris 2024, or by praising the “true values”
of Lionel Messi, new recruit of PSG.
3. The controversy
This is the safest way to avoid disappearing from radar screens: to start or fuel a controversy. This summer, it is of course the health pass and vaccines that occupy the media news. In recent days, the mayors National Assembly have been talked about by refusing their municipal police to control health passes, denouncing a measure “inapplicable” and “liberticide”. A position which led to a controversy in the Var in particular, where the prefect denounced “a political maneuver”. At the beginning of the month, it was the candidate for the green primary Jean-Marc Governatori who aroused the anger of politicians
after controversial comments about vaccines.
The little extra : Here again, manage to mix sport and controversy. It is the winning cocktail concocted in particular by Jean-Michel Blanquer. The Minister of National Education and Sports has been mocked by several French athletes for a message linking success at the Tokyo Olympics with “the quality of the teaching of these sports at school”.