In the latest delivery, dated May 31, we find jumbled together, under the headings “The continuation of ideas” and “Coups de jeunesse”, dogs tracking water leaks in Occitanie, a payment card for the homeless created in Lille or a chair adapted to people with limited mobility imagined in Besançon. Below, we talk about the very positive assessment of France’s economic attractiveness and “these measures which could concern you”, such as the evolution of MaPrimeRénov’, the Sport pass and the Olympic scope. Slightly offbeat in the current climate? Welcome to the pastel world of Cocorico, the “condensed good news” newsletter distributed by the Elysée with 100,000 subscribers. Here, it is not a question of electoral issues, pension reform or the threat of political extremes, but of solidarity initiatives, innovation and everyday heroes. Created in April 2021 at the end of confinement, with a first issue entitled “Un train d’avance”, it aims to be a selection of positive information spotted everywhere in the country, and preferably elsewhere than in Paris, in the press local or France Bleu sites.
Another corner of the Web, another atmosphere. Like Cocorico, Fdesouche presents itself as a press review, but the tone and orientation are very different. The first is intended to be optimistic, a reflection of the successful France dear to Macronism. The second exclusively highlights “bad news” and feeds the sad passions and anger of a France in search of authority. On June 19, on the site, in addition to information on the anti-Semitic rape of a 12-year-old girl in Courbevoie, there was talk of the “murder of a Franco-Moroccan for which an illegal migrant under OQTF was arrested “, of a post office robbed in Switzerland and of which “the culprit found in France is a migrant” or even of an “attack in Rennes in front of an Afghan butcher’s shop with a man between life and death”. The site takes care to include articles from mainstream media and not relay unverified information, but it shows a country on the brink of the abyss. The objective is clearly displayed on a page of the site: “Our secret to engrave in the heads of the 5 million spectators of the TF1 news that insecurity is a factual and indisputable reality: every day, we explore the depths of daily press to reveal to our 100,000 daily visitors all the dramas of Crépol that France 2 wants to hide from the French.”
Cocorico, Fdesouche. Two worlds, two world visions which find a singular resonance during this electoral period. Of course, the Elysée will say that its newsletter is only anecdotal in its communication system. That the main thing is elsewhere, in the official press releases, in the speeches of the Head of State, in the “offs” of his advisors. But the Cocorico logo – a hand brandishing a small blue, white, red flag – appears on each of the pages of the Presidency of the Republic website, no matter how dramatic the news is. As if there was no question of renouncing the ambition outlined by Emmanuel Macron in 2016 during the creation of En marche!, nor the momentum that brought him to power. Cocorico is a survival of the “start-up nation”, values which united the first supporters of Emmanuel Macron and which still connect his smaller base of faithful: positivity, optimism, the belief that France is going to come out of this, that tomorrow will be better than today, collectively and individually. Almost depoliticized in the “old world” sense of the term, this electorate dreams of efficiency and defends a reforming voluntarism that nothing can stop.
“Start-up nation” versus “it was better before”
Fdesouche resolutely places itself on the side of “it was better before”. With a growing echo. Nearly 4.9 million visitors visited the site in May, but the brand also has nearly 270,000 subscribers on Facebook and as many on X (formerly Twitter). By claiming to highlight facts that others tend to hide, Fdesouche plays on the idea of an exclusivity shared only with its readers. Even if it is less and less true. Local news stories which, a few years ago, would have remained confidential now find national resonance in media like Current values, CNews, but also the JDD or Europe 1. Considered by Fdesouche as “welcoming and transitional media”, they give visibility to this information and oblige all media, whatever their sensitivity, to process it.
Fdesouche’s influence grew because its content responded to the mood of a significant part of the country. Recent opinion surveys show this : in France even more than elsewhere, distrust, weariness and gloom prevail, whatever the reality experienced. The frequent use of social networks further accentuates the impression of a world that is falling apart on all sides: “They essentially operate on rejection, on anxiety. It almost becomes a necessity for people to seek out negative content, which they also find in dystopian series or films”, notes Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, communicator, founder of the MCBG agency. The accumulation effect then works in full force. “The site is careful to relay as little disinformation as possible, but it has a political strategy through the selection of facts. It is in the cocktail that it provides to read that it misleads the visitor about the representativeness of this that he shares, there is a distorting magnifying glass of reality, which points the finger at certain communities”, adds Tristan Mendès France, associate lecturer at Paris-Cité University, specialist in digital cultures.
In this context, the “happy news” carried by Cocorico is struggling to find its audience. In a country that feels downgraded, the Élysée newsletter seems far from concerns, completely outside the dynamics of social networks. When Macronism asks citizens to adapt to a changing world, a large part of them dream of an immutable world. When Emmanuel Macron’s supporters put forward very conceptual figures showing an improvement in the economic and social situation since 2017, they respond with very visible closures of public services, signs of insecurity and deterioration of their daily environment. It doesn’t matter if the two coexist, feeling wins. The painting of a rosy life is all the less credible as it is promoted by the Elysée: “As long as it is public power which disseminates positive information, it is not believed. passes for propaganda even though Fdesouche also produces propaganda”, continues Philippe Moreau Chevrolet.
The political events of recent weeks, made up of dissolution, forced legislative elections and new alliances, have reactivated the battle between these two world views. To the disadvantage of the optimistic version. It is difficult for Macronism to defend the idea that the best is yet to come when it sees the result of the European elections as a severe defeat. Conversely, the growing concern in society primarily benefits those actors who, at a minimum, share the anxieties of the most vulnerable or, better still, seem to have the answers to protect them. In October 2017, Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “Society is changing: I will arm you to find your place in this change, rather than pretending to protect you against it.” Now others are reversing the proposition. And seem better placed than him to sing cocorico.
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