Jacques Serais, special envoy to Pau and Cauterets-Cambasque / Photo credit: Thomas SAMSON / AFP
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10:41 p.m., July 06, 2023
Emmanuel Macron was present this Thursday on the sixth stage of the Tour de France in the Hautes-Pyrénées. Present in Pau in the morning to meet local elected officials, the Head of State intends to resume the thread of his agenda after the last days marked by urban violence.
It is an appointment to which Emmanuel Macron is particularly attached. This Thursday, the Head of State attended the sixth stage of the Tour de France between Tarbes and Cauterets-Cambasque in the Hautes-Pyrénées. Because despite the riots and urban violence of the last few days, it is out of the question for the president to depart from this tradition.
Almost every year since his first election in 2017, Emmanuel Macron has followed a stage of the Great Loop. This year, as usual, he did part of the course in the car of the director of competition, Christian Prudhomme, before attending the presentation of the jerseys on the set.
“We have a problem of authority in society”
However, this foray into the Pyrenees goes beyond the sporting context. In the morning, the president was at the town hall of Pau, alongside the mayor François Bayrou. He exchanged for nearly two hours with about sixty elected officials from the city and the agglomeration, in particular about the riots which hit the country.
“We will continue to work. We have all experienced an important moment in the life of the nation, so we will continue to work. The first response is order and calm, harmony, then to work on the root causes”, declared Emmanuel Macron in particular.
The Head of State is pleased that “the order [ait] been restored” but according to him, “we must try to understand and build” before asking ourselves: “Who had foreseen what happened?”. The president also considered that “we have a problem of authority in society which begins with the family”. Emmanuel Macron did not once utter the word immigration during this exchange.