Building on his popularity, Gabriel Attal is traveling in the Rhône on Saturday where he revealed the main points of his general policy declaration expected on January 30, before interacting with some 150 French people to further “enhance” his speech to Parliament . The new tenant of Matignon will speak publicly for two hours in the afternoon with residents and mayors of the department, in Saint-Laurent d’Agny, around twenty kilometers from Lyon. A format reminiscent of the great debate led by President Emmanuel Macron after the yellow vest crisis.
“I do not plan to prepare (the general policy declaration) by remaining in my office with my advisors. I like the field, moving around,” explained Gabriel Attal during the ceremony of the wishes of the commune of Orliénas (2,400 inhabitants). “Continue to support working France”, “strengthen our public services” particularly in the areas of education and health, “continue to strengthen our police officers, our gendarmes”” and accelerate “the ecological transition”: the leader of the government listed the main axes of its declaration of January 30. “One of the challenges we have to overcome (…) is how to keep our identity, our French identity, our values, our great strengths, in a world that is changing and moving,” he continued.
He must then have lunch with local elected officials, including the constituency deputy Jean-Luc Fugit, organizer of the event. Gabriel Attal intends to “feed” his general policy declaration from these meetings as well as from his interviews with the political, trade union, employers’ forces and the associations of elected officials received these days at Matignon. Going into the field is an exercise that the young head of government appreciates, inspired by former Prime Minister Jean Castex. “The proximity, the field, the listening, I continue,” he confided to one of his visitors this week.
Protesters
As soon as he was appointed, he made several trips, five in five days, from the flooded Pas-de-Calais to the Caen market in Calvados, via a college in Yvelines. His general policy statement was delayed by the long press conference given Tuesday by Emmanuel Macron, who discussed numerous subjects for which the Prime Minister is responsible.
Gabriel Attal promises “strong measures” to meet the expectations of the “middle classes”, which he often describes as “hard-working France, who get up every morning with the feeling of working for others”. But he says he is “lucid” about the “uncertain” economic prospects and the “tense” political context, being deprived of an absolute majority in the National Assembly.
This exposure is not without risk. On the Caen market, he was challenged by opponents of the law on immigration or on the situation in the Middle East, their voices sometimes drowned out by the cries of demonstrators. “I’m not coming to be told everything is fine,” he replied without batting an eyelid. In Yvelines, he was confronted with a first controversy affecting the new Minister of Education Amélie Oudéa-Castéra who educated her children in the private Stanislas establishment, accused of “abnormalities” in a National Education report.
Protect the president
But vis-à-vis the Élysée, meeting French people “helps protect the president”. “Because when we go into the field, we are within shouting distance,” notes political communications specialist Christian Delporte. His asset remains his popularity, greater than that of the president. In January, he became the most popular political figure in the Cluster 17 polling institute’s barometer, dethroning Marine Le Pen.
His aura can contribute to sending a “more audible” message compared to a presidential speech which seems “demonetized”, analyzes the historian Jean Garrigues. Contacting the French also allows us not to remain a prisoner of Matignon’s “hell”, underlines Mayada Boulos, a close friend who directed Jean Castex’s communications.
At the same time, Gabriel Attal continues to receive the “living forces” on rue de Varenne. After meeting his ministers on Thursday, he received representatives of employers Medef and CPME and those of the right, whose votes in the Assembly are essential to him. He also received the unions as well as the leader of the far-right National Rally party Jordan Bardella and must still discuss next week with the left and associations of elected officials.