Lionel Gougelot (correspondent in Hauts-de-France) // Photo credit: Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP
modified at
2:26 p.m., September 2, 2024
While waiting to be consulted in turn by Emmanuel Macron, Xavier Bertrand, the president of the Hauts-de-France region, was in Oise this Tuesday, in Crépy-en-Valois, to attend the return of students from a vocational high school that is experimenting with wearing uniforms. On site, Xavier Bertrand dodged questions about his stopover at the Élysée this afternoon.
“It’s okay, it’s still a bit calm. In a few hours, a few days, everything will change.” And it’s not his personal case that Xavier Bertrand is talking about this morning in a high school in Oise, in Crépy en Valois, but rather what awaits teachers in the coming days at the start of the school year. Visiting classes, workshops, handing out uniforms to students… A few hours before his meeting with Emmanuel Macron, Xavier Bertrand finally acted as if nothing had happened.
No word on his visit to the Élysée
“No comments before and I’ll tell you afterwards what’s going on. Today, it’s a regional president who’s working. I’m here with the young people in a high school in the region and that’s it, for the rest, it’ll be at the end of the day!” insists Xavier Bertrand. Listed on the short list of potential candidates for Matignon, the president of the Hauts-de-France region nevertheless lets slip a few words on what could be a solution for a way out of the political crisis.
“The French want us to deal with emergencies. The French absolutely want us to live in a country that is much less fractured, much more peaceful and a country that is moving forward. Everyone knows that. But for a long time, you know, especially in this region, I have been able to measure for ten years now the fractures and the way in which I had to resolve the fractures. That, I have always had that in mind,” he explains. Will this be the message he will deliver this afternoon at the Élysée? To this question, Europe 1 got only a small silent smile.