June 2017, legislative election campaign. Remember: it was the attack of the clones. On all the electoral boards in France and Navarre, these similar posters had appeared: on one side the candidate of La République en Marche, on the other the newly elected President, Emmanuel Macron, at the same level, on a background solid sky blue. Result of the races: 356 deputies, largely never elected or even unknown before. A success, so much so that a joke often turned at the time: even a goat would have been elected, as long as there was a photo of Emmanuel Macron on his poster.
Will it be the same this year? Emmanuel Macron has just been re-elected President of the Republic but the political situation has little to do with it and seems difficult to read. For the first time since the establishment of the five-year term and the reversal of the electoral calendar (the presidential before the legislative elections) a president who had a majority in the Assembly is re-elected. Thus the elected officials of the Macronist wave are outgoing this time, and the image of the President of the Republic is perhaps a little less buoyant than five years ago. In fact, the clone army has changed all the same.
Richard Ferrand is surprised
In addition to a – happy – change of graphic pack (goodbye plain sky blue) it is no longer so rare to come across a poster of a majority candidate without a photo of Emmanuel Macron. This is the case for example of Julien Bargeton, candidate in Paris. Ditto for Laure Miller, in the second district of the Marne. Of course, the phrase “Emmanuel Macron’s official candidate” is written in large print, but the change is noticeable. So notable that Richard Ferrand, who pulls the strings of the Macronists’ legislative campaign, was moved by it.
In a message sent on May 12 in the Telegram loop of candidates Together, the President of the National Assembly expressed his “surprise at discovering on social networks that many candidates omit to include the face and / or the name of the President of the Republic on their campaign posters”. “Omitting this identification is in this respect an error which can jeopardize each candidacy and therefore the constitution of a solid majority”, he continued.
Mobilization
Most of the majority candidates seem to agree with this idea. “We almost all put it on, with a few exceptions”, notes Isabelle Florennes, outgoing MoDem deputy for Nanterre-Suresnes. “The challenge is first to mobilize our electorate. And our best asset is the support of the president”, judges Maud Bregeon, who tries her luck in Hauts-de-Seine, in Antony, and put Emmanuel Macron on her poster “at the same size” as her. . “Of course I introduce myself as Maud Bregeon, but I immediately put in evidence that I am from the presidential majority. “It’s a matter of clarity, I intend to defend the president’s program!” “says Valérie Thomas, outgoing MP for Puy-de-Dôme, who still thinks that having Emmanuel Macron’s photo on his poster is “a real booster” for his campaign.
Five years after having been elected on his own behalf, to refer again to the omnipresent image of the president, isn’t this the mark of a failure of the establishment of the outgoing men and women of La République in walking and the MoDem? So think! Valérie Gomez-Bassac, outgoing LREM MP for Var, is proud to display Emmanuel Macron “because I have not forgotten that I was elected thanks to him” but specifies that this year she also has the support “of many mayors of my constituency, of all parties except the extremes”. Ditto for Isabelle Florennes, so well established in her constituency that she has the support of the mayor LR of Suresnes and does not even have a right-wing candidate facing her.
MP MoDem sees an analytical error in those who choose not to display Emmanuel Macron. “We must not erase his commitment. And then look, the others do not hesitate to put Mélenchon, Le Pen and Zemmour on their posters. Valérie Thomas is less harsh than the others, judging that “even if the legislative elections are national, each constituency is in a different situation”. She prefers that everyone is free and that there are no absolute rules. “I understand very well that a minister does not display the president. Or that we make this choice in a constituency where the context is less favorable… ”Julien Bargeton, quoted above, who does not display Emmanuel Macron, is a candidate in the sixth constituency of Paris… Where the left obtained 58 % of votes on April 10. His 12th best score in France. This might explain that.