Elections in France: Emmanuel Macron finally dresses up as a candidate for the April presidential elections

Less than 15 days before the presidential elections, Emmanuel Macron made his first “real” trip as a candidate, going to Dijon, a historic region in central-eastern France, on Monday, March 28. He left not only the role of President of the Republic, but also that of Acting President of the European Union. For the electoral scenario, Monday marked the opening of the official campaign and was also the occasion for the current president to truly enter the arena with a view to his re-election two weeks before the first round, Sunday, April 10.

Going through popular neighborhoods, casual exchanges with neighbors, encouragement, reproaches, the French Head of State thus decided to set aside, at least for a few moments, the crises caused by the invasion of Ukraine and the pandemic, which again hit with more than 100,000 infections a day. After all, Emmanuel Macron waited for the opening of the official campaign to decide to enter the contest.

No longer speculation or time, the president, who on March 4 timidly announced his desire to renew his five-year term at the Elysee Palace, left with this presence a campaign where he had opted for limited appearances, led by circumstances to move away from a big bet.

In Dijon, capital of Burgundy, among the promotional tours, the campaign showed a more common format. Their lack of presence, or their agenda tied to current contingencies, had begun to disturb their environment. A president under the effects of the invasion of Ukraine, mired in post-covid reconstruction, but away from everyday problems. The preferred candidate has a 28% intention for the first round, according to the Ipsos-Sopra Steria poll for Le Monde, the current president must be active against his main competitor, the far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen.

The small decline of his comfortable first place, the accusations of his opponents of wanting to overstep the campaign and the fear of seeing the morale of his electorate go down, out of arrogance and presuming that he had won the election, convinced him of the need to get out on the ground. “Meetings, I love that! I am frustrated that I have not been able to do it earlier,” he said on Sunday on the screen of France 3.

But getting out of the comfort zone because of “no exposure” left him at the mercy of the claims. In the popular district of Fontaine d'Ouche, Macron was questioned about the fall in purchasing power. The French are particularly hit by the rise in fuel and energy prices. At that invitation, he was questioned by a concurrent who told him that he could no longer survive economically. “Put yourself in the shoes of a French family. It's awful. Horrible to do the shopping, to fill up your gas tank. I'm a poor wage earner. At some point we will have to find a solution because people are going to get tired,” the assistant said. But he also insisted: “The 18 cents they give for diesel is ridiculous! How to fill up a deposit to 140 euros? Nothing to live for after paying the bills.”

Leaving the optimism of the polls, the walks allowed him to exchange with several dozen inhabitants of working neighborhoods. Not being able to skip awkward situations, some even dramatic. “We, the people who work, can't take it anymore. Help us, Mr. Macron,” a woman told him through tears. Among the crowd, along with “President Macron” and many expressions of support, some were also heard: “Resignation Macron”, led by a couple of women who reminded him of the existence, still alive, of the “yellow vests” movement.

Slowly, something rare in the timed times of Macron, the tenant of the Elisha, also dealt with, without proper names, the growing phenomenon of the far right. Direct reference to his closest opponent, Marine Le Pen, and much further on Eric Zemmour. Even when tens of thousands of activists and supporters cheered on Sunday at the Trocadero event in the Trocadero in Paris, when tens of thousands of activists and supporters cheered: “Murderous Macron”.

“There are political leaders who only like violence. I think it's not good for the country,” Macron said. “Those who lose their nerves by being violent, in threats, in insult, are bad for democracy and the Republic, whatever project they have,” he said, without identifying any candidate, but with a clear objective.

“There is the extreme right, today, which is still there, and that, in front of us, is still supported by a clan and wants division. The extreme right has useful allies, who help it,” concluded the head of state, who was invested in that act as leader of his movement The Republic in March.

Macron, who knows that it can attract the votes of a fragmented left, which also adds to the fear of the rising far right, emphasized his intention to make school and health “the two pillars” of a possible next five-year period. The outgoing president, who seeks revalidation in April, defended the “coherence” of his policy, consisting of “creating wealth so that we can reinvest in social policies and help the weakest.”

In another sign to captivate the vote of the most vulnerable, in a district with inhabitants with concrete difficulties, Macron recalled that “there is no such thing as magic money.” He defended his proposal for an “employee dividend”, intended to make the payment of a profit-sharing bonus mandatory for the staff of dividend-paying companies.

Their first, and probably last, campaign meeting before the first round will be held on Saturday, April 2 in La Défense in Paris, in a room that can hold up to 35,000 people. The most anticipated event, a virtual closing of the campaign.

Thus, his proselytizing activity in popular Dijon, in contact with a population with real problems, was also intended to be a message to embody the opposite face of its far-right competitors, and to move away from the label of “arrogant” and “superb”, something that usually separates him from social humor, in the midst of a climate even more rarefied by the crisis left by the pandemic and a war that few imagined.

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