Health constraint, citizens’ weariness, budgetary argument … The traditional political meetings are running out of steam, but remain obligatory passages for the contenders for the Elysee Palace.
The rain and the wind had not cooled them. The Covid probably wouldn’t have dissuaded them either. On March 5, 2017, François Fillon, who had just been torpedoed by the Chained duck for suspicion of fictitious jobs in the National Assembly, gathered his troops at the Trocadero, in Paris. The meeting with the air of last stand brings together tens of thousands of people, haunted heads and right-wing people from Finistère or Sarthe… the faithful. Since then, the Covid has overturned all the skittles, slowing the inclinations of major events inside. In the meantime, a sign of a weariness with regard to politics which is only growing stronger, the abstention still nibbled a few points in the last local polls.
Had Fillon been a visionary by gathering his square of believers in the open air? Less than four months before the first round of the presidential election, and while a new wave of coronavirus is sweeping over France, the conditions for organizing major campaign events are worrying. Jean Castex announced that a “Commission” would be responsible for thinking about the organization of the campaign, as had been the case for the regional elections. Double objective: to protect the health of citizens and, at the same time, to ensure “The exercise of democracy”, says the Prime Minister. While knowing that the meetings will not be affected by the return of the gauges, set at 5,000 people outdoors and 2,000 indoors. “Political and electoral activities are subject to specific provisions in our constitutional law which ensure that they are […] even stronger protection, so it is clear that the measures I announced this [lundi] evening does not concern political meetings», Explained the Prime Minister, history of guarding against accusations of political manipulation.
“Galvanize” rather than “convince”
Has the political meeting, an almost sacred rite of political life, lived? The chorus makes smile an environmentalist, experienced in the exercise: “I have heard for fifteen years that we must renew this form of meeting that would be has been. But in the end, everyone does! ” The fact remains that at a time of marked mistrust of the political class, this type of exercise is wearing out. In 1974, between the two towers, between 80,000 and 100,000 supporters flocked to listen to Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. In Toulouse, the day before the first round of the 1981 election, 35,000 socialist activists applauded François Mitterrand. In 2012, François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy clashed with meetings interposed one week before the first round. The first in Vincennes, in the open air, festive atmosphere and zouk music by Jacob Desvarieux on the program; the second at the Concorde, in a sober and solemn style. The two camps then claimed more than 100,000 participants.
Which political party is today capable of attracting tens of thousands of groupies for an afternoon or an evening, which is moreover in the midst of a health crisis? In Perpignan, on December 12, Anne Hidalgo, whose presidential candidacy is stuck in the polls, brought together barely more than a thousand socialist activists. On the 5th, at La Défense, Jean-Luc Mélenchon was applauded by nearly 5,000 fans. Certainly, the ranks will grow as the election dates draw closer. And anyway, defend our old green trucker, “The meeting is not made to convince, but to galvanize the people present and show them that they are not alone”.
2022, a reduced-format campaign
But at the time of the epidemic, how to reinvent yourself? In the country stables, there are many who plead caution and responsibility above all. In Laon, at the beginning of December, the environmental candidate Yannick Jadot brought together barely 400 activists. On December 11, Valérie Pécresse launched her campaign in a reduced format, at the Mutualité: a very small thousand people, especially executives of her party. “The presidential majority will impose itself to respect the gauges fixed in all its events”, promised for his part the boss of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand. In 2017, the Macron candidate was particularly fond of packed rooms, from the Mutuality to the Porte de Versailles.
For their part, the National Rally and the rebels have announced that they will not apply the gauges in their next meetings. “The question does not arise”, thus evacuated the spokesperson for RN Sébastien Chenu, this Wednesday, on Europe 1, recalling that the Constitution allowed, “until proven otherwise” the holding of political meetings. “It would be problematic to set up a gauge”, abounded the rebellious deputy Éric Coquerel, on RMC, denouncing in passing the “Liberticidal measures” government, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon will gather his support on January 16, in Nantes.
The exercise remains a must. The proof for Eric Zemmour: after a pre-campaign tour of France in bookstores or on social networks, the far-right candidate gathered more than 10,000 people in Villepinte on December 5. “It’s a show of power, unrolls the already mentioned eco. The images remain, more than the speeches. We also show the hesitant that this is where it happens ”.
Marine Le Pen, still standing despite the blows of Zemmour but competing with Pécresse, will thus try to accelerate his campaign during a first “big” meeting in Reims, on January 15. For the rest, his team praises the European campaign in 2019, in “The France of sub-prefectures”. Smaller gauges therefore. “We reach people who are not used to seeing political figures, defends Philippe Ballard, spokesperson for the National Rally. In Vesoul, it was a festival, a day of selfies for Marine “. Fans, again.