Chronic. It is an understatement to say that it was expected. After weeks of speculation in all directions on the substance and form, Emmanuel Macron finally chose to present his program at a press conference in front of several dozen journalists on March 17. Exit, the questioning effervescence that accompanied the same exercise five years earlier, in March 2017. At the time, the former deputy secretary general of the Elysée and minister of the economy, who had resigned a few months earlier to going solo, looked like an outsider, promising to reshuffle the cards of the political game. Surrounded by renowned economists (Jean Pisani-Ferry, Philippe Martin, Philippe Aghion, etc.), he was also keen to establish his credibility, particularly in terms of economic policy.
Five years later, it is a president tested by three major crises – social, with the “yellow vests”, health, with the Covid-19, geopolitics, with the war in Ukraine – who is running for a second term. And it is more like a teacher in front of his students, with a presentation in several parts and sub-parts shelled for more than four hours, that the Head of State appeared.
Measures amended in the following days by those around him or the government, such as the RSA conditional on fifteen or twenty hours of activity or training, approximate figures saying nothing about the real way of making the savings necessary to finance the expenses incurred… The candidate president did not manage to dissipate the impression of scattering and unpreparedness, the following days.
Macron relies on his balance sheet
However, swear his supporters, upstream, the work has been done: committee meetings, sending notes… So, lack of time? Of interest? For the past month, the Russian invasion has upset the calendar of the president, who has long hoped to benefit from a more peaceful “window” to present himself after the two years of the pandemic. It also changes the priorities of the French, who are increasingly concerned about their purchasing power.
“Either Macron and Kohler [le secrétaire général de l’Elysée] did not have time to look into the details of the project, and to arbitrate precisely – and if they do not decide, no one does – or they wanted to leave themselves room for manoeuvre”loose, disconcerted, a support from the start.
Moreover, the candidate is counting on a major element to continue to carry it: his balance sheet. Economic balance sheet with the recovery of the economy and the fall in unemployment, which reached 7.4% at the end of 2021, and ability to weather the said crises. On March 17, in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), Emmanuel Macron insisted on his “credibility linked to the last five years” : “I try to do what I say and I try to say what I do each time. »
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