My dear compatriots
Article reserved for subscribers
While Emmanuel Macron is preparing to say his last wishes to the French for this five-year term, a traditional exercise for the Presidents of the Republic, a little recap of his previous interventions on New Year’s Eve.
It is a tradition that has continued since General de Gaulle: the wishes to the French on December 31 on television. Each President of the Republic must engage in this more or less solemn or successful exercise, without forgetting of course to play politics. Since 2017, Emmanuel Macron has been no exception to this rule. His speech evolving with the news, from yellow vests to the health crisis, the President was able to play with different staging and tones of voice to appear sometimes as a “reformer” wanting to be inflexible or, like several of his predecessors tried it before him, as a “President-captain” in the face of the crisis. Back to his four previous New Year’s Eve speeches.
2017: Macron walks on water
After shattering the French political system a few months earlier, the new President of the Republic displays a satisfied mine. Expected at the turning point in his approach to this ritual of end-of-year greetings, the cantor of the “new world” surprises with a sober posture and staging that respects the traditions of the Fifth Republic.
In a Gaullian tone, Emmanuel Macron seeks to unite the French by addressing “A fraternal thought” to those who feel abandoned: “I want to tell them that they belong to a great nation and that the thousand tense threads that …