Faced with the contradiction, the macronie stiffens

Let’s concede that it’s never fun to be scolded in mondovision. But faced with the vigor of the Macronist reactions after the speech of the Palme d’Or Justine Triet, last Saturday, shouldn’t we see a slight overreaction? During the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival, the director criticized the contempt and repression towards the challenge of the pension reform, and defended the French cultural exception which she considers threatened. The blood of the Minister of Culture has made only one turn, “stunned by (this) speech so unfair”. There followed a myriad of reactions, each more outraged than the next, up to the ultimate symbol: we are still awaiting the tweet of congratulations from the President of the Republic to Justice Triet.

Would macronie have a problem with contradiction? Recently, it is the League of Human Rights, and its critics on the maintenance of order, which have suffered the wrath of the government, to the point of threatening subsidies, as for the cinema with Justice Triet. The demonstrators of Sainte-Soline were quickly treated as “eco-terrorists”, without any other form of trial, by Gérald Darmanin. And currently, the Assembly is debating the military programming law, a huge stake at 413 billion euros by 2030. We could hear several deputies of the majority being surprised that there are so many debates at the ‘Hémicycle. In truth, it is expected that there will be few votes against, but above all a lot of abstentions: “But everyone should be for! we were told.

Don’t turn the other cheek

The majority also went very strong against Charles de Courson (Liot), rapporteur of the bill to repeal the pension reform. In committee, Wednesday morning, ad hominem attacks multiplied against this centrist, respected member of the Assembly, described by the macronists as “radicalized” for several weeks. “There is a hardening of their strategy, I observe it. On de Courson, on Coquerel, we were in personal attacks. It was incredibly violent against Justine Triet, the minister would be grown to be magnanimous, ”observes a rebellious strategist.

At Renaissance, we do not totally deny: “After having spent difficult months on the pension reform, we are a certain number to say to ourselves that it is time to stop turning the other cheek. “Some macronists want to” assume to be offensive, to assume to have sometimes harsh speeches, to assume to be divisive “. Certainly, until then, in the Hemicycle, the Macronist troops had a certain tendency to turn their backs in the face of the blows of the opposition. And this despite a few bangs, notably from Aurore Bergé, the president of the Renaissance group. A first awakening took place during the last motion of censure, with a very offensive speech by the president of the group, welcomed by her family and the government.

Good, order and reason

Are we, in Macronie, reducing the scope of what is contestable in public debate? The answer given is “no”. Let’s be honest: there are few examples in France of powers that are very open to criticism. At the start of your mandate, there is always this little side “we won the elections, you lost them, you suck”. Then at the end of the mandate, the power can have the impression of being in a besieged citadel, and giving lessons to everything goes. This was the case, for example, of François Hollande’s Minister of Agriculture, Stéphane Le Foll, interviewed on France Inter the day after his camp’s defeat in the 2015 regional elections.He hadn’t hesitated to summon Iraq and Syria to explain to an unemployed woman that, well, in the end, the situation wasn’t so bad here.

Each camp has its hobbies. The left sees itself as the camp of good, and who doesn’t want good? The right as the camp of order, and who can want disorder? Since 2017, something new has been born: macronie is seen as the camp of reason. The cleavage is no longer left/right but reasonable/unreasonable, and that without transition: “Today, people who don’t agree with us want to overturn the table, that’s the new cleavage”, explained without blinking a macronist deputy in sight last week.

Consequently, the majority and the executive have each time chosen, lately, to dramatize the issues. Even if it was not the option of everyone, including high-ranking leaders of the majority. On the bill to repeal the pension reform, this is still what has been decided: it has no chance of being definitively adopted, the macronists say so loud and clear. But the decision was taken to focus the speech on the possible unconstitutionality of the text; as if proposing it would endanger the institutions. It is also the choice to put oneself in danger each time. Until then, it wins, the government has the institutions for him. But the day it loses?

source site