In Dijon, this Wednesday April 6, François Rebsamen received the ministers Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne and Éric Dupond-Moretti for a meeting in support of Emmanuel Macron in front of 300 people. “I have left-wing convictions and I will vote Emmanuel Macron,” said the mayor of Dijon.
A meeting in support of Emmanuel Macron’s candidacy, two days before the end of the first round campaign. Four ministers or former ministers at the microphone. More than 300 people present. This Wednesday, April 6, 2022, the Devosge room in Dijon vibrated with the punchlines of François Patriat and the lyricism of Éric Dupond-Moretti.
However, it was not the crowd of the big days in this campaign which takes place in a context of epidemic rebound of the Covid-19 and conflict in Ukraine. 300 people is twice less than at the time of the 2012 campaign in particular, but it is twice as much as during similar meetings which have been held in recent days in Auxerre or Chalon-sur-Saône.
Few socialist activists in the audience
Early Walkers and Young People With Macron make up the core of the public. Around them, it goes from the former Republicans who followed Édouard Philippe in the creation of his Horizons party last October to the still socialists now members of the Progressive Federation co-founded recently by François Rebsamen, via the Modem.
The LREM parliamentarians from Côte-d’Or are present: Fadila Khattabi, Didier Martin, Didier Paris, François Patriat. As well as Éric Alauzet, Member of Parliament for Doubs, Frédéric Barbier, Member of Parliament for Doubs, Barbara Bessot-Ballot, Member of Parliament for Haute-Saône, and Michèle Crouzet, Member of Parliament for Yonne.
The municipal Modem team came in large numbers: François Deseille, Danielle Juban, Nora El Mesdadi and Georges Mezui with Marie-Thérèse Pugliese nearby. Only two socialist assistants to François Rebsamen appear: Nadjoua Belhadef and Françoise Tenenbaum. The Radical Party with Jean-Philippe Morel. Territories of Progress with Muriel Vergès-Caullet. Part of the municipal opposition of Dijon, gathered around Alain Chrétrien, regional delegate of Horizons in Burgundy-Franche-Comté: Claire Vuillemin and Henri-Bénigne de Vregille.
Beside them, Ludovic Rochette, mayor of Brognon, who was on the list of the presidential majority led by Denis Thuriot in the last regional elections. Other mayors are Samia Djemali (newly elected in Corcelles-lès-Cîteaux), Jacques-François Coiquil (Auxonne) and Catherine Sadon (Semur-en-Auxois and regional councilor). But not Dominique Grimpret, mayor of Ahuy, where the meeting was originally to be held.
The presence of two ministers makes the evening a regional meeting and a good number of participants come from different parts of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The Socialists who were from all the previous campaigns of the PS and who could now follow François Rebsamen are rare.
Among them, the argument of “countering the far right” hits the bull’s eye, especially since the fear of a victory for Marine Le Pen is circulating in the local federation. Many will say they have been touched, “tears in their eyes”, by the weight of the words of Éric Dupond-Morreti, summoning dark hours in the history of France to demolish the notion of “de-demonization” of the National Rally.
“I have left-wing convictions and I will vote Emmanuel Macron”
Departmental referent of LREM in Côte-d’Or, Maria-Paz Fave Usach presents the speakers then François Rebsamen takes the floor first. He has the role of beating the recall for the next 48 hours: “you have to go into the field, it’s not just social networks, (…) I found that there weren’t a lot of ‘Emmanuel Macron posters in the city’. “We lost sight of each other a little”, he slips, referring to François Patriat who followed Emmanuel Macron from 2016, “but we found ourselves”.
“I am not joining the Republic on the Move”, warns François Rebsamen, “I am a man of the left, I remain a man of the left, I have leftist convictions and I will vote Emmanuel Macron”, launches François Rebsamen under a thunderous applause. “I am sure that from Sunday, Dijon will vote in numbers for Emmanuel Macron. Dijon is a city open to Europe, (…) it is a city that has always welcomed all refugees, (…) it is a city that has always chosen the side of the Republic in the face of nationalist danger.
“A Keynesian recovery policy”
The former Minister of Labor of François Hollande chooses to make the link with François Mitterrand by evoking the slogan of “United France”: “we must come together”. And to defend the “high” level of compulsory levies, the increase in the activity bonus, the stability of the poverty rate despite the health crisis thanks to “a Keynesian policy of recovery” or even the duplication of classes in the network. priority education. The proposal to pay social allowances at source is welcomed by the socialist.
“And the ISF?” launch a supporter of Arnaud Montebourg in the room. “We can always do better,” replied François Rebsamen. This will be the only critical remark arising from the audience.
“At the same time there will be a basic pension at 1,100 euros”
Then intervenes François Patriat who begins with a best of five years of punchlines before taking a more serious tone: “the hardest part is ahead of us internationally, in Ukraine, because this war will produce heinous crimes, plate tectonics will famines, wars to come and tragedies to come”. The former Minister of Agriculture thus refers to the destabilization of the cereals market, the consequences of which are already being felt in North Africa, in Egypt in particular, a country that obtains supplies from Ukraine and Russia.
Faced with “pessimists” and other “declinists”, “Emmanuel Macron is the candidate of vision, optimism, creativity, hope for France, hope for the French”, insists the senator. “There will be three retirement ages: 55, 62 and 65 depending on the situation”, he defends about the pension reform proposal, “there will be at the same time a basic pension at 1,100 euros” .
Recalling the vote of the MEPs of the Rassemblement National against the reception of refugees from Ukraine, François Patriat analyzes that “Madame Le Pen’s program is a program that calls into question all the European treaties”.
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne targets “the demagos”
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne arrived late but in time to intervene. His train was stopped at Montbard station due to a personal accident on the Paris-Lyon line, the minister ended the journey to Dijon by taxi.
“The majority is intended to expand,” says Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, thinking of the legislative elections and seeing all the parties represented in the room. “Next to the somewhat stunted France worn by Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour, we are there in all our diversity.”
In turn, the Minister of Tourism defends the results of the five-year term as Ségur de la Santé and its variations in the territories, taking the example of Yonne. They also target “demagos”, including Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
“A period marked by the trumpisation of minds”
“I like the debate,” says Éric Dupond-Moretti, taking the floor for a 45-minute speech. “In a period marked by the trumpisation of minds, everything is white, everything is black, there are no more nuances, we no longer discuss, social networks flood us with nonsense; they are both the marvelous tool of a participatory democracy and sometimes also an open dustbin.”
“A good idea from the right is better than a bad idea from the left” and vice versa, he says, turning to François Rebsamen and François Patriat. An aphorism which receives a great success from the applause meter of the room.
“Humanist but not angelic”
The Minister of Justice also defends his record: higher sentences today “than they were twenty years ago”, execution of sentences “up to 93%”, “the largest budget of the Ministry of Justice for more than thirty years”, recruitment of 698 magistrates (compared to 27 recruitment during François Hollande’s five-year term and 142 non-replaced retirements during Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year term), local justice, criminal justice code for minors, seizure of scooters used for urban rodeos, lower stocks of legal cases, opening of justice points, payment of alimony by the CAF, change of surname…
“Humanist but not angelic”, the Keeper of the Seals highlighted some upcoming constructions of 15,000 prison places and 21 closed educational centers.
“Marine Le Pen hid behind Éric Zemmour”
The former lawyer becomes a prosecutor by immersing himself in Marine Le Pen’s program: “page 10, exit from NATO and military alliance with Russia, show it!”, “limit sentence reductions to six months by , it’s done!”, “a real life imprisonment: Madame Le Pen was a lawyer but did not read the provisions of article 221-3 of the Penal Code, that already exists”, “punish minors as soon as the first act: it is the Code of criminal justice for minors but she was not in the National Assembly, we never see her”. “It’s not very serious,” he concludes.
Addressing all of them in particular to Jeunes avec Macron (JAM) as “SAM, senior avec Macron”, Éric Dupond-Moretti takes an even more serious, even tragic tone, to outline the history of the Front National – “created by a former Waffen SS” – recalling the convictions of Jean-Marie Le Pen “for incitement to hatred”.
The “senior” however returns to the present to list the “frequentations” of the president of the National Rally including “a Nazi”, a “presumed neo-Nazi”, a former member of Equality and Reconciliation “anti-Semitic and conspiratorial movement”.
“Seems it’s corny to say that”, he storms, “it’s sure Zemmour did one thing”. “They are the same. Before this election campaign, they were friends. They have the same values, they have the same relationships, they have the same niece. I can’t bring myself to believe that our country is run by people like that. (…) The complacency of the media with regard to these people is unbearable. (…) [Marine Le Pen] went under the radar, she hid behind [Éric Zemmour], they are the same. I look at Emmanuel Macron’s program, I tell myself that it’s the France of 2030, these people, the France of 1930. (…) I will never accept that!”
“Emmanuel Macron also needs us”
Softening the tone and reducing the emotional level of the remarks, the lawyer by profession returns to current topics and the economic recovery which was announced at the end of the health crisis. “I want Emmanuel Macron to be President of the Republic again. (…) We need Emmanuel Macron and I think he also needs us”, he assures to mobilize.
As the first “President Macron” of a meeting after all quite wise, Éric Dupond-Moretti sings the Marseillaise in a stentorian voice quickly followed by the first row which rises then by all the assistance.
Jean-Christophe Tardivon
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