Emmanuel Macron claims to have “intellectually transformed” on ecology in the past five years
On the emergence of ideas “new” over the past five years, particularly academic reflection movements on gender or the postcolonial era, Mr. Macron believes that it is a “very good thing” that they “emerge in the intellectual field”. “They need to emerge, to discuss, for controversies to take place, for work to progress and for it to work in society. And I think that it is not the role of the President of the Republic, in this case, to be the arbiter, ” he argued, before adding: It would be contrary to what is an important achievement in our country, which is this academic freedom, this intellectual freedom..
He thus affirmed to closely follow these “contemporary reflections “, particularly “on gender and on the relationship to nature”, before emphasizing: “One of the things on which I transformed myself without the most intellectually, that’s it, it’s the relationship to nature, it’s the thought of ecology. (…) It was not something that I had thought about enough (…) when I don’t have a structured thought, I find it difficult to act and to conceive. »
Asked about the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project abandoned at the start of its five-year term after years of tension and opposition to its construction, Emmanuel Macron highlighted the consensus found on the spot, while assuming for not having given his support to the zadists, who occupied the lands: “You cannot accept expropriation, because it is in fact a form of anomie (…) You must not be naïve either. These alternative projects are not just sweet dreams. There is also a violence that goes with this radicalism, and I think that we cannot explain to people that we accept pockets of violence in our society”.