38 days before the first round of the presidential election, Emmanuel Macron formalized his candidacy for the presidential election, in a “Letter to the French” sent Thursday evening to the regional daily press. “ I am a candidate to invent with you, in the face of the challenges of the century, a singular French and European response, he writes. I am a candidate to defend our values that the disruptions of the world threaten. I am a candidate to continue to prepare the future of our children and our grandchildren. To enable us today and tomorrow to decide for ourselves”.
In this text, he devotes a few paragraphs to the defense of his record… and a few words to self-criticism. “We haven’t succeeded in everything. There are choices that with the experience acquired with you I would no doubt make differently, ”he admits, giving hope for a different method if he is re-elected.
Emmanuel Macron outlines some priorities for a second five-year term (education, health, work). Committing in particular to “investing in old age at home”, he praises the “strength of our social model”, this “investment in people throughout life, which gives confidence to families and has made France one of the countries in Europe with the highest birth rate”. Regarding work, as in 2017, it maintains the objective of “working more” (and therefore of a pension reform), but also the reduction of production taxes and charges weighing on work. “There is no independence without economic strength,” he argues. He also claims to make France a “great ecological nation”, freed from “dependence on gas, oil and carbon”.
“Threat to our democracies, rising inequalities, climate change, demographic transition, technological transformations”, “we are experiencing upheavals of incredible speed”, he underlines, but “make no mistake: we will not respond to these challenges by choosing withdrawal or by cultivating nostalgia”, already targeting Eric Zemmour (Reconquest!) He intends to “build the France of our children, not rehash the France of our childhood”.
Posture. On the form, the time is no longer for the effect of surprise or innovation. Neither the date of this declaration of candidacy, constraint, nor its form, arch-classic, will have surprised anyone. The President waited until the last day to declare himself, accentuating the posture of a President almost exclusively mobilized by the war in Ukraine. He chose the process of the “Letter to the French”, a worn-out political communication tool, released by François Mitterrand in 1988.
The method chosen, lapidary and banal, is dictated by the tragic events in Ukraine. The outgoing President “had to do so in sobriety and simplicity”
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Before Emmanuel Macron, Nicolas Sarkozy had already copied François Mitterrand, publishing his “Letter to the French people” two weeks before the first round of the 2012 presidential election. Emmanuel Macron himself had already used the process: three years ago to the day, on March 4, 2019, in the context of the European elections, he sent a letter to European citizens, entitled “For a European renaissance”, published in 28 languages in several European newspapers, entering the electoral battle European.
The method chosen for this entry into the campaign, lapidary and banal, is dictated by the tragic events that have been taking place since February 24 in Ukraine. “In view of the international context, Emmanuel Macron had to do so in sobriety and simplicity,” said Arnaud Benedetti, associate professor at Paris-Sorbonne University and editor-in-chief of the Political and Parliamentary Review.
By addressing his “Letter to the French” to the only regional daily press, Emmanuel Macron also borrows from Jacques Chirac. On 4 November 1994, during a trip to Lille, the latter announced his candidacy for the 1995 presidential election in an interview with The voice of the North. As for the mayor of Paris in 1994, it is for the current President to favor a press anchored in the “territories”, in order to correct his image of a Parisian without roots.
” In the pocket “. The “declaration” sequence, during which nothing was left to chance, therefore took place in three stages. A geopolitical moment on Wednesday evening, with the solemn declaration from the Elysée, during which Emmanuel Macron called on the French to face the war in Ukraine and promised them that he would do everything to “protect” them from the consequences. conflict; but also with the telephone conversation Thursday morning with Vladimir Putin, during which the latter affirmed his “very great determination” to continue his offensive. A health time Thursday noon, delegated to Prime Minister Jean Castex, who announced, five weeks before the first round, the end of almost all health restrictions for March 14. Election time on Friday, with the publication of the “Letter to the French”.
“In the same way that there was a political use of the health crisis, Emmanuel Macron scripts the Ukrainian crisis, judge Arnaud Benedetti. It allowed him not to enter the campaign too early and not to get bogged down in controversy. His luck is that there is a stupefaction linked to the events in Ukraine: the critical spirit of the French is mobilized towards other areas. With a small mortgage however: 40 days, in a war, it’s a long time, we don’t know what can happen; it cannot be ruled out that opinion is changing. »
In his “Letter to the French”, Emmanuel Macron regrets “not being able to campaign as I would have liked because of the context”. Leaving a glimpse of a campaign during the remaining 37 days. After unanimously denouncing the President’s refusal to enter the arena, his opponents are now worried that international issues are overshadowing other important issues. “He will have to take his other hat as a presidential candidate, because he owes a balance sheet to the French”, warns Marine Le Pen, candidate RN. When Macronist officials worry about the demobilization of troops. “Walkers tend to think it’s in their pocket too much,” said an LREM parliamentarian. At least they now have a candidate in good standing.
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