Emmanuel Macron drags out the case. It’s late. After indulging in a Lagavulin whiskey – his favorite – the head of state finally gives the green light. In the presidential Airbus which is en route from Mayotte to Paris, his troops summon Louis de Raguenel.
“Loulou”, as his colleagues call him Current values, despairs of getting an interview with the President of the Republic. The exchange was promised to the ultra-conservative weekly before the presidential trip to the overseas territories and the Indian Ocean to talk about the fight against illegal immigration. It was to take place during the outward journey, but Emmanuel Macron slipped away. Too busy. It is finally on the way back that the “moment” of the journalist, who has since become head of the political service of Europe 1, will take place. In the lounge of the A330, this Friday, October 25, 2019, the microphone is open.
Emmanuel Macron confides without caution, determined to be present on this sovereign ground which he lacks so much. His line: “humanism and firmness”. Being intractable towards illegal immigration – “I have no naivety”, he defends himself – to continue to make France a land of asylum. But the tone is surprising.
“My goal is to take out all the people who have nothing to do there,” he assures, promising to carry out the obligations to leave French territory. At the turn of a sentence, he alpagates the “human rights” and expressed leniency vis-à-vis Julien Odoul, elected from the National Rally, who had ordered a mother accompanying the children of a class of CM2 to the regional council of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté to remove her veil. “He got caught” thinks the president. The plane is touching down. The interview made the front page of the weekly obsessed with Islam and the question of identity.
The left wing of Macronie is strangled. Some cry out for the betrayal of a head of state whom they thought to be social democrats, others attack the methods “savages” of the magazine. Emmanuel Macron remains unfazed. Smiling and almost amused when a woman, a few days later, calls out to him in the streets of Honfleur (Calvados), calling him a “repulsive” this cover. “You have to talk to everyone” assumes the tenant of the Elysée. “Emmanuel Macron handles symbols. We were one for him. He was happy with his effect.” thinks Geoffroy Lejeune, editorial director of Current values.
game share
In the president’s entourage, we quickly realize that this supposed « accident » of communication is not one. At the time, Emmanuel Macron was going through what he called a ” Indian summer “. The revolt of the “yellow vests” subsided after the exercise of the great national debate, and the strikes linked to the pension reform do not yet paralyze the country. The time has come to seal Act II of the quinquennium.
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