“President of the cities”, “president of the rich”: Emmanuel Macron tries to correct his image as the presidential election approaches – archyworldys

Jazz music and clinking glasses. The atmosphere is meant to be friendly, this Tuesday, November 16, at Carré Montparnasse, a basement room located a stone’s throw from the station of the same name, in Paris. A few hundred guests gathered under the banner of La République ensemble (LRE), an association of local Macronist elected officials launched by former minister Stéphane Travert. “Elected officials at the heart of the territories”, proclaims its slogan. And obviously happy to be in the capital, on the sidelines of the congress of the association of mayors of France (AMF).

“Shhh! “, annoy some guests as Gabriel Attal grabs the microphone. The government spokesperson wants to send a message: despite the defeat of the majority in municipal, departmental and regional elections, in 2020 and 2021, La République en Marche (LRM) would be “Implanted” closer to the life of the French. “There is this kind of political construction, media, which would like to make of the presidential majority an uprooted political movement, absent from the territories. You are all the proof that it is false ”, he says. A pro domo plea intended to thwart the story of an Emmanuel Macron portrayed by his opponents as disconnected from the reality of the country.

“President of the cities”, “president of the rich” … With the approach of the presidential election of 2022, the Head of State and his supporters are trying to drive out these anathemas, successfully installed by the right (for the first) and the left (for the second) at the start of the five-year term. Two balls dragged for four and a half years, which feed the image of arrogance of the former Minister of the Economy. A stubborn impression in public opinion: according to an IFOP survey published in October, only 26% of French people consider Emmanuel Macron close to their concerns.

“Misunderstandings” and “prejudices”

To go up the slope, the President of the Republic has been seeking for many months to rely on the most popular category of elected officials in France: the mayors. The very ones he addressed during the great national debate in the aftermath of the “yellow vests” crisis in early 2019. “Since we have been together in our responsibilities, we have experienced crises. I have always seen the mayors there at the heart, at the front of the Republic ”, said Mr. Macron, Thursday, at the end of the AMF congress, in order to better position himself on their side.

Distant, him? “Misunderstandings” and “Prejudices”, he pleaded. “I am not the only President of the Republic not to have been mayor. I understood that General de Gaulle was being honored a lot lately, he may have had the same fault ”, underlined the Head of State, boasting of having spent more time than his predecessors in debating with local elected officials. The day before, in front of a thousand councilors received at the Elysee Palace, Mr. Macron also estimated that the “Prefect-mayor couple has demonstrated all its effectiveness” during the Covid-19 crisis. This is good: the initiative is his doing.

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