Arthur de Laborde with AFP / Photo credits: LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
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1:50 p.m., May 9, 2024
One month before the European elections, most ministers will be in the campaign, on the ground, this Thursday. Gabriel Attal “asked members of the government to multiply on the ground where it is useful and where the French are in this period of prolonged bridge”. The Prime Minister will travel to Brittany to Bréhan where he will visit the Olmix factory, specialist in biosourced solutions for livestock breeding and agriculture, before going to meet French people in Vannes.
“Now is when the campaign really begins”
So far in the background, Gabriel Attal moves to the front line. In Brittany this Thursday, he will try to mobilize the macronie’s electoral base in traditionally pro-European lands. He, who promised a turning point during Valérie Hayer’s meeting in Paris. “It is now that the campaign really begins, now that we are going to change dimension, go knock on all doors, survey all markets, convince each of our fellow citizens,” he declared.
Around twenty members of the government will be deployed across the country: Christophe Béchu (Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion) in Loire-Atlantique, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra (Sports) and Sabrina Agresti-Roubache (City) in Marseille, Marc Fesneau ( Agriculture) in Loir-et-Cher, Frédéric Valletoux (Health) in Mayotte… Bruno Le Maire (Economy) will go to a food bank, while the head of the Macronist list for the European elections, Valérie Hayer, will give a meeting in Bordeaux.
Emmanuel Macron asks Gabriel Attal to get involved in the campaign
In the eyes of certain executives in the presidential camp, the commitment is late. One of them explains that the Prime Minister had no choice since Emmanuel Macron asked him on several occasions to get more involved, in particular pressing him to agree to debate opposite Jordan Bardella. A debate scheduled for May 23 on France 2.
Matignon denies any pressure from the Élysée and assures that the rise in power of Gabriel Attal, in the home stretch of the campaign, was planned. One of his supporters, however, acknowledges hesitation by admitting that “staying away would have allowed the Prime Minister to be less exposed to the political consequences of a heavy defeat in the June 9 election.”