A video of the new Prime Minister, which marked his first presidential campaign, has reappeared. On this one, he slaps a child in Strasbourg.
François Bayrou has just been appointed Prime Minister this Friday, December 13 at the age of 73. The father of six children and grandfather of twenty-one grandchildren was a three-time presidential candidate. His first attempt took place in 2002, but this campaign was marked by a controversial streak which has just resurfaced. Traveling at the time to the town of La Meinau in Strasbourg to discuss insecurity, the president of Modem found himself in a delicate situation.
While he was in the neighborhood center with Fabienne Keller, mayor of Strasbourg at the time, a thrown stone broke a window of the building. François Bayrou then decided to confront the young people behind the incident, who had gathered just downstairs. First trying to initiate a dialogue, François Bayrou suddenly turned around and slapped an 11-year-old boy, who he said was trying to pick his pockets. He then shouted: “You’re not picking my pockets! Yes, you were picking my pockets.” The sequence had been filmed.
A gesture with unexpected political repercussions
Widely criticized, he defended himself a few days later by saying that it was “a harmless gesture as a father”. Patrick Mignola, former president of the MoDem group in the National Assembly, returned to the consequences of this gesture with Franceinfo. “We were very, very afraid, because there is normally nothing worse for a politician than to be violent. But we said to ourselves: he is going to collapse, and that will be the end of his political career…”.
The sequence did not ultimately influence the opinion of François Bayrou as much as Frédéric Dabi, general director of the IFOP, explained: “There was the feeling that there was a decline in State authority. , benchmarks which were lost, and it is true that from this point of view, the slap had shown a certain form of authority, he who was caricatured in a somewhat weak manner. After this event, his electoral base. He progressed. was 4/5, it went to 7, 8 then 9″. Today, the reactions would certainly not be the same: “In the current context of terrible tensions, I doubt that it will be perceived in such a positive way. It will be seen once again as a decay of the political field”, nuanced Frédéric Dabi.