Do we really need to go from Teddy Riner to Lucie Castets? Salute the medalists of the games, the volunteers of the games, the professionals of the games, yes, as many times as necessary. Receiving the one who is doing a tour of France believing that it can take her to Matignon, on the other hand… For Emmanuel Macron, it is the chore of the moment.
To his numerous interlocutors in August, the head of state said he wanted to “receive the presidents of parliamentary groups and party leaders”. All of them, including the RN and La France insoumise, were deprived of the missive from Gabriel Attal and Stéphane Séjourné. “The president is the president of all French people, he must have a complete vision to inform his choice”, explained one of his own. All the political leaders succeeding one another in his office… Have classicism and simplicity stifled Macronism?
“If the New Popular Front agrees and wishes to be received with her, it is possible.”
Come on! Emmanuel Macron is testing the possibility of a more flexible format with his friends and advisors: “If some people want to come with someone, they can.” A message for the NFP and Lucie Castets. In July, the Matignon candidate regretted that Emmanuel Macron had not deigned to speak with her. Receiving her alone? Out of the question, but “if the New Popular Front agrees and wants to be received with her, it is possible,” confirms someone close to the president.
A Macronist strategist is worried: “It’s taking the risk of legitimizing it.” Guillaume Gontard, president of the Greens in the Senate, is already enthusiastic: “If he wants to go around the table and involve Lucie Castets, that would be an important signal. It would show that this candidacy is taken more than seriously.” Excessive optimism?
The bet of tearing
As with any contract, in politics you always have to read the small print and the asterisks. “If the NFP agrees”… Quite a program for this alliance of the left that took weeks to come up with a candidate for Matignon who would suit all of its components. And it is undoubtedly on this aptitude for divisions that the head of state is once again betting: to force the left to appear divided and to conclude from this image that no figurehead of the NFP has a place at the head of a government.
This Wednesday, August 14, Patrick Kanner received a text message from an aide to the Head of State informing him of the latter’s desire to meet with him on August 22 – with no agenda mentioned for the moment. Immediately, the leader of the Socialist senators called the Elysée Palace to find out if Lucie Castets could take part in the meeting. “We will ask the appropriate person and we will get back to you,” his interlocutor replied. Patrick Kanner does not yet know if the left, the lefts, will go “as a delegation” to rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. And this is undoubtedly what, on the Elysée side, is causing this waiting period. “It can’t be the party leaders, then the alliances, then…” warns a close friend of Emmanuel Macron.
Would the touchy France Insoumise take part in a joint meeting? “That could be a first meeting to get a duplicate of the keys,” jokes Hadrien Clouet, LFI deputy. But in reality, that raises two questions. First, on the form: who accompanies whom? Second, the substance: why does Macron want to see people? I don’t have an opinion until I have the agenda.” We’ve seen more spirited people. A little more patience before contemplating the political forces gathered to work in the service of the State and the French people. One certainty: the name of the Prime Minister, and his successors, will be revealed well before then.
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