The arrival of Emmanuel Macron at the 20 Heures de France 2 and TF1 three days before the European elections caused great excitement in the opposition, pushing Arcom to establish a strict framework.
Seized in turn by La France insoumise, the Communist Party and The Republicans, the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom) ruled on the Macron case. While the President of the Republic will be invited to the 20 Hours of France 2 and TF1 on Thursday June 6, the opposition criticizes the majority for “requisitioning the news” a few days before the election and even though the voting intentions in favor of the list of the majority are hardly encouraging.
“All or part of the remarks made during this interview [d’Emmanuel Macron] may be taken into account for the electoral campaign […] since due to their content and their context, they relate to the political debate linked to the elections”, Arcom announced this Tuesday, June 4 in a press release, specifying that it had contacted the two audiovisual groups to “qu “they inform him without delay of the measures they intend to take”, the objective being to “guarantee to all the lists full respect for fair presentation and access to their antenna”.
HAS BFMTV, Arcom clarified its remarks. Concretely, each time Emmanuel Macron speaks or even mentions the election, his speaking time will be deducted from that of Valérie Hayer, the head of the Renaissance list for the European elections. On the other hand, the speaking time of the President of the Republic will not be counted when he addresses so-called sovereign issues or subjects relating to “political debate”. The fact remains that the exercise promises to be perilous, whether for the channels responsible for the count, but also for the President of the Republic himself. After a similar controversy, his speech at the Sorbonne on April 25 was finally judged by Arcom to be deductible, thus removing 2 hours of speaking time from candidate Valérie Hayer.