Jacques Serais, edited by Gauthier Delomez / Photo credits: Xose Bouzas / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
Out of sight, the services of the Elysée treat with the greatest attention the approximately 200,000 letters that the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, receives each year. Europe 1 was able to enter where these letters arrive and where they are analyzed, at 11 quai Branly in Paris. A mysterious address, 2 km from the Elysée Palace, located on the other side of the Seine.
It is at the Alma Palace that all the letters intended for the president and the first lady arrive. “Mails, letters, gifts,” explains Stéphanie Gauthier, head of the “Citizen Dialogue” service at the Elysée.
Letters analyzed before landing on the president’s desk
On average, 170 letters per day are received, to which must be added more than 330 emails daily. These are requests, observations from the French. “We open all the letters, we separate them with small separators, and we scan them into the computer. Once scanned, we will be able to qualify them, that is to say what it is about, is it what is it about ecology, justice, security?”, she informs Europe 1.
The objective of the “Citizen Dialogue” service is that “all letters that arrive in one day are all recorded”, specifies Stéphanie Gauthier.
Letters considered the pulse of the country
Some of these missives end up landing on the desk of the head of state. “He is very demanding,” assures an advisor, but Emmanuel Macron obviously cannot read everything. “There are notes that will be made, summaries from advisors to the president,” underlines Géraud Albouy, head of the “Monitoring and analysis” department. “It is the role of the teams to look at what is being said, to see if there are things that may have escaped us, and which could escape the president’s action,” he continues on Europe 1.
These letters, as well as messages published on social networks, are seen as the pulse of the country.