Emmanuel Macron will deliver a new speech, from Notre-Dame, for the reopening of the cathedral that burned down in 2019. A challenge met that he will not fail to credit…
When he announced, the day after the terrible fire which ravaged the cathedral on April 15, 2019, that Notre-Dame would be rebuilt in five years, some thought he was crazy. Emmanuel Macron should not fail to remind us of this in one way or another this Saturday, December 7, when he speaks for the grand inauguration of the restored building. After the hesitations of his cabinet, the head of state will indeed give a speech. He was to do it from the square in front of Notre-Dame, but the weather will force him to speak within the cathedral itself, before the religious ceremony.
In this speech at Notre-Dame de Paris, Emmanuel Macron should inevitably mention the “successful gamble” of some 2,000 “builders” who worked tirelessly during these five years, to restore all its splendor to the Parisian monument. But also remember that this bet was a bit his… “We will rebuild the cathedral even more beautiful, and I want it to be completed within five years”, had in fact ordered the President of the Republic in a speech televised on April 16, 2019, barely 24 hours after the fire, when the extent of the damage was not yet fully established.
On November 29, 2024, during a final visit to the restoration site, the president gave a preview of his speech for Notre-Dame. And he was careful to choose his words carefully. “Yes, in April 2019, we decided that it would take five years. So it’s true, we were told a lot, at the beginning, that it wouldn’t be possible, that it was crazy, that it was arbitrary, that we were going to do badly But, deep down, behind this simple objective, there was an aggregation of all the wills And you achieved what we thought impossible,” said Emmanuel. Macron a little vengeful.
In front of a hundred heads of state today, including Donald Trump, he should more or less repeat to what extent the work of journeymen, rope access technicians, carpenters, glaziers, and other craftsmen working in the old-fashioned way, a perfect illustration of the French energy and know-how was invaluable. But perhaps also to what extent he was right to provide the impetus and to advocate hope, when the “nightmare” was barely over.
“The shock of the reopening will be, I believe, and I want to believe it, as strong as that of the fire, but it will be a shock of hope,” Emmanuel Macron also assured on November 29, within Notre -Lady. “The Notre-Dame blaze was a national wound and you were its remedy, through will, through work, through commitment,” he also told the architects of its reopening, thanking them for having found an “antidote to despondency” and to have “showed the world that nothing can resist audacity”.
The speech at Notre-Dame, a prayer for a political miracle?
“Achieve the impossible”, “bring together wills”, find an “antidote to despondency”, “show the world that nothing can resist audacity” and provoke a “shock of hope” after the “nightmare” …Those who have not noticed the coded message and the almost clear reference to the political situation can learn to read between the lines. And if they still had to be convinced, Emmanuel Macron even dared to compare, still on November 29, the rebirth of Notre-Dame to a “metaphor of the life of the nation”…
Since the dissolution of June 9 and the defeat in the legislative elections that followed, the head of state has tried, as with Notre-Dame, to restore relief to his five-year term and to call for unity. He again demanded, during a speech Thursday evening, an impossible “government of general interest” and estimated that he had “30 months” to put the country back into action and “rebuild the nation”, in “unity” and “the ‘hope”.
But unlike Notre-Dame, the rebirth of the Macronist building, completed in 2017 and already in ruins, could remain wishful thinking. His opponents will no doubt have a good time reminding Emmanuel Macron that this time he was the one who lit the blaze by leading the country into crisis, he who had risen as the bulwark against the extreme right, and by deciding this dissolution of the National Assembly, misunderstood even within its own ranks. It may take more than the “most beautiful construction site of the century” to get the house back on its feet.