Mayalène Trémolet with AFP / Photo credits: Johanna Geron / POOL / AFP
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7:07 p.m., May 9, 2024
Gabriel Attal is in Brittany on Thursday for Europe Day, setting an example for his government and its majority, mobilized throughout France just one month before the European elections to support the Macronist list, which is far behind that of the RN . The Prime Minister first went to Rohan in Morbihan for an exchange with around fifteen French people, in the La Gavotte creperie. It is “not an official trip as Prime Minister, but to support Valérie Hayer for these European elections”, he told them from the outset, before listening to their thoughts and grievances on various subjects. (employment, fishing, medical desertification, etc.).
Attal accuses the RN of preparing “a methodical organization” of leaving the EU
On this occasion, Gabriel Attal slipped that he would announce next week the outlines of the future unemployment insurance reform. “It is not a question of saying: we stigmatize those who are unemployed”, but we must “encourage people to work”, he explained. The head of government then visited the Olmix factory in Bréhan in Morbihan, a specialist in biosourced solutions for livestock and agriculture, to which, he underlined, “Europe has enabled, with 30 million euros at stake, to be able to invest in research.
The question that arises for the European elections of June 9 is: do we want to remain “inside or outside” of the European Union, the head of government then repeated to the press, accusing the National Rally of preparing “a methodical organization ” of leaving the EU. The head of government chose Brittany for his first campaign trip. “We need Europe (in France), and obviously in Brittany. The Bretons know it, they are very attached to Europe,” he justified. “Because it is a European and humanist land, resolutely turned towards the future. And because it is a land which benefits greatly from the investment of the European Union,” he told the Telegram.
Strong Macronist strongholds in Brittany
A region considered key to the majority electorate, which it is striving to mobilize to ward off the polls which find it largely behind the National Rally and closely followed by Raphaël Glucksmann’s PS-Place Publique list. No National Rally deputy was elected in Brittany in the frontist wave of 2022 and the presidential majority retains solid bastions there, despite the emblematic defeat of the president of the outgoing National Assembly, Richard Ferrand.
The committee supporting Valérie Hayer’s list is chaired by former minister and ex-mayor of Lorient Jean-Yves Le Drian. “Europe is everywhere in our lives,” insists Gabriel Attal, who provides details in Le Télégramme on European funding benefiting Bretons (digital equipment in schools, Ephad, businesses, etc.). And the majority presents “the most Breton list of this entire campaign”, he insisted on France 3 Bretagne, slipping that “there is no eligible Breton” on the lists of the PS, the Ecologists and from La France insoumise. That of the majority has one: Marie-Pierre Védrenne (MoDem). Like that of the Republicans (LR) with Isabelle Le Callenec or the RN with Gilles Pennelle.
On Friday, the Prime Minister will be in La Rochelle for a ceremony to commemorate the abolition of slavery. Then he will wander, like Thursday in Vannes, in the city center. For her part, Valérie Hayer, who sounded the “general mobilization” on Tuesday during a meeting at the Mutualité, was traveling to Bordeaux on Thursday. She will travel to Corsica on Friday and Saturday. The campaign teams are also hard at work for this Europe Day. The program unveiled this week has been printed and will be distributed in 6 million copies.
“No public holiday”
“No public holidays when we are in the countryside” is Matignon’s watchword towards the government, ordered by Emmanuel Macron to get as involved as possible in these European elections which promise to be delicate for the majority. Around twenty members of the government are deploying to the four corners of the country on Thursday.
The Head of State is also involved in the campaign and will answer questions from Internet users on Europe on Saturday morning. He also asked his Prime Minister to debate with the head of the RN list Jordan Bardella on May 23 on France 2. Asked about a possible governmental recomposition with the right at the end of the European elections, a scenario which is circulating within of the government, Gabriel Attal refused to respond to the Telegram. “These questions are not relevant today. The European elections are elections that concern Europe. And I will fight in this campaign to remember that.”