The images from the United States on Wednesday evening revived memories among the Macronists.
Of course, everyone is careful not to push the comparison between the insurgency of Trump supporters and the demonstrations of a fringe of yellow vests on the outskirts of places of power two years ago.
" You should be careful.
The starting point of the yellow vests is not what we see in the United States, but people who are in the red at the bank on the 15th of the month.
And in the end, those who tried to attack our institutions, our buildings, were rather a minority of enigumènes ”, underlines Benjamin Griveaux, spokesman for the government at the time, when in the entourage of the president we call for "not to mix everything".
Additional distinction: if the demonstrators in Washington were agitated by an outgoing president who did not recognize his defeat, the motley movement of yellow vests, born of the protest against the carbon tax, has never lined up behind a leader.
The fact remains that in front of their television screens Wednesday evening, the main actors of this stormy episode of the quinquennium could not help but think of this winter 2018-2019.
"I obviously thought about it", breaths one of them.
Another confides his "astonishment" on the mode "it is therefore possible".
If this is not a brief intrusion into the courtyard of the ministry housing the government's spokesperson, nothing like this happened in France during the yellow vests crisis.
However, some recall the violent attack on the sub-prefecture of Puy-en-Velay.
"If they enter the Elysee what happens?"
Several times, power has trembled for its institutions.
Like this Saturday, December 1, where the cries of the crowd, the columns of smoke, were perceptible from the offices of the Presidential Palace after the call from some to “enter the Elysee”.
“Protecting the Elysee, the Assembly, the Senate, it was systematically our concern because we knew that it was an institutional target.
You say to yourself: if they enter the Elysee, what happens?
", Remembers the then Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, who analyzes:" Everyone today claims to be the people, which means that the institutions have lost legitimacy and that some will until the symbolic invasion.
"
In his post-attack on the Capitol, in the dead of night, Emmanuel Macron obviously made no connection with this stormy period of his five-year term.
"The main message was: when the people express themselves, there is no question of calling them into question because otherwise everything collapses", recalls those around him, who insists: "When we attack American democracy, we are attacking all democracies in the world.
"
"Hyper worrying"
However, the events of Wednesday evening did not remain without political echo on this side of the Atlantic.
“The subject is the preservation of our democracies and the responsibility of political speech.
It is sure that it is an electric shock.
When we take all the statements of each other, we see that some French politicians are playing on this register, "denounces Stéphane Séjourné, MEP and advisor to Emmanuel Macron, when Benjamin Griveaux warns against the effect of" fake news ”and the“ permanent ball-trap of the political class ”.
Particularly in the sights of the macronists, the National Rally of Marine Le Pen and La France insoumise by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The election of Joe Biden to the White House having finally been confirmed on Thursday, "democracy was stronger," said Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, even if, according to him, these events did not nothing “an anecdote”.
“It is the radical testimony, fortunately in the minority, of a tendency to question democracy also present in Europe.
This is proof that heating up a society is never trivial.
We must not play at being afraid.
But it is a point of alert, ”said the one who was advisor to Emmanuel Macron in 2018.
"Alert", the term returns in the mouth of this macronist, who adds: "There can obviously be substantive claims, but on the form, there are barriers which have yielded.
It is very worrying.
And this affects all Western democracies… ”