Endless debates on the separation of Church and State, resolved at the last minute by… Météo-France. Would the gusts of wind (between 65 and 80 km/h announced) blow into the sails of a president seeking recognition? Initially planned on the square in front of Notre-Dame, it was ultimately at the foot of the altar, in the heart of the nave, that Emmanuel Macron’s speech took place. “Thanks to heaven!”, said ironically a few hours before the speech the boss of the UDI, Hervé Marseille. The last minute change undoubtedly did not displease the Head of State, eager since the first day to express himself within these walls, entering the cathedral in majesty on the arm of his wife and the mayor of Paris, Anne. Hidalgo.
That’s what you call a good day. An hour earlier, Emmanuel Macron succeeded in his coup, managing to bring together Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the American Donald Trump in the golden salon of the Élysée, without failing to post the photo of the two heads of state surrounding him on his social networks. Enough to forget the heavy absence of the Pope, who preferred the Isle of Beauty to the capital. In front of the cathedral, the presidential couple took a few photos with their predecessors, Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni, François Hollande and Julie Gayet. The air is quite light between the renovated blond stones: in the front rows, the resigning ministers Rachida Dati and Antoine Armand burst into fits of laughter at the sight of the American president. Will Emmanuel Macron catch his breath? “The breath and air given by these moments are very fleeting,” puts François Patriat, senator and early supporter of the president, into perspective. “It is Notre-Dame that we need to celebrate, the president has that in mind,” warned the Élysée.
The ways of the President of the Republic are impenetrable. The cathedral resonates with his praise of fraternity. “Brotherhood of those who have given on all continents, of all religions, of all fortunes”; “Brotherhood of journeymen, apprentices, and all trades, gathered here”; “Brotherhood of a people determined to make great choices […]”. Humility too, “we will have to keep this lesson of fragility like a treasure.” Transmission, finally: “Our cathedral reminds us that we are the heirs of a past greater than us, which can disappear every day.” Qu Regardless of bad weather, the reopening of Notre-Dame almost amounts to canonization for the tormented tenant of the Elysée Saturday December 7, the date of the presidential inauguration.
Behind the walls of the cathedral, a historic political crisis
Did Emmanuel Macron commit violence on April 16, 2019, promising at the same time to rebuild Notre-Dame while warning against “the trap of haste”? This Saturday on Mondovision, the presidential speech, sometimes performative – often contradictory – was delivered to the cheers of an audience of heads of state, entrepreneurs, ecclesiastics, and other resigning ministers. Striking contrast: behind the immense walls of the rebuilt cathedral a historic political crisis is being hatched. Very upset. Last Wednesday, a large majority of 331 deputies censured the government, after Michel Barnier took responsibility for the draft Social Security budget. The Savoyard, appointed (and chosen) by Emmanuel Macron through laborious negotiations, following a catastrophic dissolution, only survived 89 days in the parliamentary cauldron.
The presidential word does not take the blame for two. On Wednesday during his speech to the French, Emmanuel Macron admitted that the decision had “not been understood” – on BFM TV the next day, Édouard Philippe, who “knows the president well”, saw the outlines of a mea culpa. The boat is rocking, so take an example from the “impossible” Notre-Dame construction site. His friends translate it: “The rebirth of the cathedral, while France is wavering, struck by a loss of value, by the desire to destroy rather than build, is an invitation to reflection.” “We did it because there was a clear direction, a will,” the president insisted again in the same speech. Is “We” always in the plural?
It is in the singular that he has received, for the moment, the main leaders of the opposition. At the center of the game, the person concerned, although eager in the aftermath of censorship to quickly reappoint a Prime Minister, does he ultimately want to take advantage of the “trap of haste”? Just yesterday, before opening a new round of consultation with the main parliamentary groups, Emmanuel Macron assured those close to him that he would do without such a process, as those of last July had left such a bitter taste. Here he is, after Notre-Dame, embarked on a new game of dice with the oppositions, of which he imagines himself the master. “Master of long time”, it has been said.
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