“Pissing off the unvaccinated”: slippage or well thought-out communication?

Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday, in an interview with Parisian, be determined to “piss off” the unvaccinated “to the end” by “limiting for them, as much as possible, access to social activities”. Words far from going unnoticed and which did not fail to react, even leading to a new suspension of the examination of the bill on the vaccine pass in the Assembly. From Jean-Luc Mélenchon to Eric Zemmour via Valérie Pécresse, the French political scene has responded to the Head of State. But this communication is actually perfectly mastered by Emmanuel Macron.

Fracture the line

This is not a slippage. Indeed, we are far from the little sentence released in a hurry, and not thought out. This interview with the readers of Parisian lasted two hours at the Elysee Palace. And this formula “piss off the unvaccinated”, the Head of State pronounces it twice. “This is the strategy,” insists Emmanuel Macron, who even considers anti-vaccines “irresponsible”. And in his eyes, “the irresponsible are no longer citizens”.

Shocking and extremely divisive remarks. And if the tenant of the Élysée pronounces them, it is because he finds an interest in them. First, it allows him, in this return to January, to return to the center of the campaign. We only talk about him. Above all, with this process, he aims at his hidden objective of fracturing the weakened right.

Her main competitor in the presidential election, Valérie Pécresse, defends the vaccination pass and her troops are very divided on the issue. By showing himself to be cash and firm, Emmanuel Macron is preparing the ground for his supporters so that they point out this flaw in the LRs, which they somehow show that the Pécresse camp does not have the capacity to govern since it is unable to ‘to agree on this fundamental subject. Still, off the microphone, the president’s closest advisers are very satisfied with this sequence.

The words of a candidate

There is no longer any doubt, Emmanuel Macron takes on the costume of a candidate. “There is no false suspense. I want,” he explains of the presidential election. He is simply waiting for the health situation to improve before officially declaring himself. But his words are those of a candidate. After the benevolent president who made his meculpa last month, gives way today to the transgressive candidate.

Guest on Europe Midi, Frédéric Micheau, deputy general manager of OpinionWay, judged that on the form the remarks of the president are “shocking”. “It is a remark which is vulgar, which does not correspond to the level of expression which is expected from the Head of State. There are precedents. We remember the words of Nicolas Sarkozy during a Salon de l agriculture which had been so badly perceived and which had damaged its presidential image “, he explains.

Condescension and arrogance

“It is a remark which also reflects a form of condescension and which reactivates the image of arrogance which has stuck to the President of the Republic for several years and which also undermines all the work he had done, especially during the ‘interview of December 15, “he continued. “His role is obviously to bring together and work for national cohesion. And his words are antagonistic, it creates divisions in society.”

For Frédéric Micheau, Emmanuel Macron indeed comes to feed the standoff with the unvaccinated. “He strengthens them and strengthens them in their position. He should obviously have assumed his strategy of constraint, but also to pursue a work of conviction and pedagogy to remove the last reluctance,” he said. According to him, all categories of the population will be affected by these statements. “There will be a political and even electoral reading of his words. It is not necessarily a good way to start an election year.”