These are two surprising messages that could have been read on the social network X. In two days, the Elysée account, more used to disseminating the official speeches of Emmanuel Macron or to relay the most important announcements of the Head of State, thus directly challenged the media in order to deny certain information they had published.
The first answer was published this Sunday, March 9, about the Sunday newspaper. In a message published on the Elysée X account in the afternoon, it can be read that “the Presidency of the Republic denies having used the terms ‘scary’ which are loaned to him in the edition of the day of JDD. It is neither his expression nor his intention “. Before adding that” in this serious period when, faced with the Russian threat, almost all of the European Heads of State and Government takes unprecedented measures to ensure their defense, everyone must ensure respect for the perfect veracity of the facts. The moment requires lucidity, patriotism and sense of national unity “.
This message refers very directly to an article From the newspaper bought by Vincent Bolloré in 2023, titled: “Macron facing Putin: the Elysée assumes to want to be” scary “. In this paper, the daily says that “the French president assumes to underline the threat of a war and plays the escalation with the Russian president”, denouncing a “bellicose” attitude of the Head of State.
“A shameful lie”
This post on social networks could seem to be an exceptional rectification, relating to diplomatic subjects whose consequences can be significant. But this hypothesis was quickly beaten in a breach. Because two days later, on a completely more relative subject, the Elysée again denied information published by a newspaper, this time the online media Blast, according to whom Emmanuel Macron would like to “buy the car of James Bond”.
Thus, according to the media marked on the left, “for a few days, the close collaborators of Emmanuel Macron have struggled to hide their embarrassment in the face of a most unexpected presidential obsession: the acquisition of an Aston Martin, the emblematic car of the agent 007”. Blast Also affirms that “the president even enabled himself a small try of the beautiful frame in the private gardens of the presidential pavilion of the lantern in Versailles”.
And this time, the denial of the presidency was made in a much more virulent way. “On April 1st it could have been funny, but it is a shameful lie. This is false and grotesque. In addition, Blast did not contain the Elysée before publishing his article,” tackled the Elysée under the Post X of the media, which maintains its information.
A “probable” multiplication of this type of intervention
These two posts in two days mark a clear change in the communication strategy of the presidency. If the relations between the Elysée and the media have been far from having been very tender since 2017, the association of the presidential press frequently denounced restrictions on the follow -up of the action of the head of state, it remained rare that the castle will take it directly to journalists and their articles in this way.
This very direct method may well continue in the future: according to Releasewho spoke with an adviser to the Head of State, it is “likely” that this kind of interventions on social networks are multiplying. And this, in order to counter what the Elysée believes that it is false information disseminated online.