Emmanuel Macron’s sedan is approaching the Notre-Dame de Paris construction site, when the head of state asks to stop the procession. The tenant of the Elysée has a few personal phone calls to make, he explains to his team. Maybe he also needs to get some fresh air, “in view of the events of the day”, sighs one of his advisors. It is around 3 p.m., Thursday October 19, Emmanuel Macron left Arras a few hours earlier, after having attended, silent and serious, the funeral of Dominique Bernard, the literature teacher from the Gambetta-Carnot school campus, assassinated on October 13 by a radical Islamist. Since that dark day, France has fallen into the “emergency attack” level.
Nearly two weeks have passed since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, prompting a response from the Jewish state. The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, the American President, Joe Biden, and the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, visited the site. Emmanuel Macron remained in his country, described by his advisors as “ groggy ». And, that day, he wanted to stroll along the Quai des Grands-Augustins, followed by his security guard. Just before this improvised walk, he passed, in the 5e arrondissement, greet the organizers of the Rugby World Cup, still mulling over the missed opportunity of the French XV, beaten in the quarter-final against South Africa on Sunday.
“We saw Mitterrand”
Here he is now walking alongside second-hand booksellers, worried since receiving an abrupt letter from the Paris Police Prefecture ordering them to move at least for the duration of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games (OG), which will take place on the Seine, July 26, 2024. “I hope you’re not going to take away our boxes!” », calls out Sylvie Mathias, treasurer of the Cultural Association of Booksellers of Paris. “No, we won’t take your boxes away. And you will participate in the ceremony in one way or another”replies the head of state, putting away his phone. “We had never seen him on the docks. We wondered what he was doing there… It’s very strange. As much as we saw Mitterrand…”, she comments, reached by telephone.
Emmanuel Macron continues his almost solitary walk, greeting the stunned tourists when a small group of high school students, BTS building students, who came from Gagny (Seine-Saint-Denis) to study places of power in Paris, calls out to him. The journalist of Raw, Rémy Buisine, on his way to his editorial office, stops his bike after seeing the small crowd around the head of state and films the exchange, which will be broadcast on Instagram and TikTok. A journalist from Agence France-Presse also arrived by chance and transcribed the interview. “Why can’t we demonstrate now for Palestine? Those who demonstrate, you think we are pro-Hamas”asks one of the young people. “It was banned at the beginning because there was a decency period. There had been a terrorist attack. It wasn’t good, explains the president. Look in all the capitals where there are demonstrations. There are very tough elements who arrive and do the worst things. »
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