The former Prime Minister, who supports the president-candidate, warns against the far right and an election with an uncertain outcome. In the Marne, Wednesday evening, the mayor of Le Havre also took care to defend a five-year term of which he is “proud” and to cultivate his popularity.
The dance floor has been replaced by rows of chairs on which leaflets for Emmanuel Macron and European flags have been carefully placed. On the walls, campaign posters were plastered. “We are going to be fulllaunches a “Young with Macron”. We have to show that there is atmosphere.” Wednesday evening, the Atrium nightclub, in Reims, welcomes special support from the Head of State: his former Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe. An organizer gives the last instructions: “If people are booing, your role is to make as much noise as possible.”
Spotlights, music and waving flags. A guard of honor welcomes the former tenant of Matignon. Le Havrais already has his supporters. Like Didier Fages, 64 years old. Edward Philippe, he says, “Try to set a course, an orientation. He brings from the bottom. And we need that.” Old “sarkozyst” inserted at LR, this entrepreneur in oenology has since moved to Horizons, the party of Edouard Philippe. “Faithful” support of the outgoing president, Didier Fages remains “careful” four days before the first round. “There is a rise in protest in the country, he advances. Anti-Macron, anti-system. The boss talks about the Champagne vineyards, the campaigns where Marine Le Pen came first in certain villages in 2017. “The reserve of voices of the far right is important”, he warns. And if the candidate is “all in roundness, you have to look inside the cake, the fundamentals,” he warns.
“The national withdrawal is a dead end”
The home stretch of the presidential election looks like a ghost train for the majority. What posture to adopt to counter the threat of the far right? Re-demonize a Marine Le Pen with softened features by a peaceful campaign? Dramatize the situation? In Finistère, on Tuesday, Macron attacked his “deadly project” aimed at leaving the European Union and the Schengen area. At LREM, the frontist threat, a few days before the first round, seems to have supplanted the fear of abstention and a “benevolent demobilization”, said a minister active in the campaign, at the end of March. The turn is noticeable.
In Reims, Edouard Philippe therefore targeted the far-right candidate. “I do not believe that national withdrawal is at the time of continental empires a guarantee of sovereigntylaunched the former head of government. The national withdrawal is a dead end. According to him, what “play” in this presidential “it’s the choice between national withdrawal, which is an illusion of sovereignty, and the ability to weigh in the world, which involves European sovereignty”. And Edouard Philippe to quote the withdrawal of French troops in the Sahel or the war in Ukraine.
“The French nation, the one of which Malraux speaks to us, […] never look in the rear view mirroralso launched the support of Macron. France is a projection, an idea that we must achieve. On the eve of the first round, the meeting in Reims also served as a call for mobilization. “This election is not made”, launched Le Havrais, remembering the episode of the right-wing primary, lost alongside Alain Juppé in 2016. “Overconfidence leads to error,” adds the mayor of Reims, Arnaud Robinet, calling for “humility”.
In the Parisianat the end of March, Edouard Philippe already assured that “of course, Marine Le Pen can win”. His adviser and friend, MEP Gilles Boyer, says the same thing: “The denial of risk, or of reality, is what leads to unexpected and surprising results.” And to conclude, lucidly: “It is when a hypothesis seems improbable that it occurs.”
“I am proud of this record”
While waiting for the first round, Edouard Philippe brilliantly played the score of the former tenant of Matignon “loyal” corn “free”, as he likes to say. From Emmanuel Macron, the mayor of Le Havre thus praised the culture of “exceeding”I’“boldness” and his defense of a “European ideal”. “The President is in this campaign probably the only [qui] best represents the European ideal. And that’s no small thing.”
In his man’s suit “free” on the stage of the nightclub, Edouard Philippe addressed his assistance in mode stand-up, standing and microphone in hand. Speaking of his readings, of Victor Hugo and André Malraux, he assured that “the presidential election tells us about France”. In front of a full house, the former Prime Minister also praised the reforms of the five-year term – apprenticeship, unemployment insurance, etc. “This record, I am proud of it, it is also mine”, he slips in passing. A way not to insult the future which, for the mayor of Le Havre, should accelerate in June, at the time of the legislative elections.