Now in the arena, Emmanuel Macron feels the first tremors. Mobilized by the Ukrainian file, the Head of State is conducting a parallel campaign on the ground, like this Thursday, in Charente-Martime. “I will fight to continue to convince”, he insisted on his arrival in Fouras. Favorite of the ballot for months, the president-candidate still wanted to remobilize his troops the day before, before a big meeting on Saturday in Paris. Because the gap with Marine Le Pen continues to narrow in the polls, in the first and second rounds. At the same time, the macronie finds herself confronted with the McKinsey affair, which continues to pollute her campaign.
“The McKinsley controversy is inflated by service populists”
The government’s increased use of consulting firms, in particular the American McKinsey, unveiled in a Senate report on March 17, is disrupting Emmanuel Macron’s campaign. On the left as on the right, his opponents did not hesitate to attack him on the amounts committed, more than one billion euros in 2021, and on a supposed connivance with the business community, like Marine Le Pen in an interview this Thursday at 20 minutes. “It’s a real scandal. Justice will most certainly be seized to determine if there have been advantages given to McKinsey, a certain number of whose employees worked for the benefit of Emmanuel Macron for his 2017 campaign, ”assures the candidate of the National Rally.
“This controversy is a bit surprising because the use of external firms represents less than 1% of the state budget, less than the English or the Germans”, sweeps the deputy LREM Roland Lescure. “This controversy is carried and inflated by the usual service populists and others, like Valérie Pécresse. They imply slanderous and dishonest things to make it a pseudo state affair. We are actually very far from it, ”breathes the chairman of the National Assembly’s Economic Affairs Committee.
McKinsey, fuel for Marine Le Pen?
After sweeping the accusation out of hand, the macronie took care to retaliate to put out the fire. “We have nothing to hide,” assured Olivier Dussopt (Budget) and Amélie de Montchalin (Transformation and Public Service) during a press conference on the subject Wednesday at Bercy. The two ministers thus recalled that “all the rules of public procurement have been respected”, promising from 2022 to “reduce by at least 15% the use of external consulting services”. Still, the McKinsey case, very viral on social networks, continues to fuel controversy, especially since the American provider is also accused of tax evasion. “The oppositions have succeeded in making it a band-aid for us”, recognizes a leader of the majority.
The majority fears that the case will push the candidacy of Marine Le Pen a little higher, in a context of soaring energy prices. On Wednesday, Emmanuel Macron therefore attended the weekly meeting of his campaign committee for the first time to close ranks. “He never believed that the election was already won, assures Roland Lescure. Political history is littered with candidates who already saw themselves there and who were eliminated in the first round. We will have to fight until the last minute. »