Gabriel Attal continues to increase the number of trips since his arrival at Matignon.
The Prime Minister is going to the Rhône this Saturday to discuss and hear the concerns of around 150 French people, whom he wants to involve in the preparation of his general policy speech at the end of the month.
The new tenant of Matignon will speak publicly for two hours with residents and mayors of the department, in Saint-Laurent-d'Agny, about twenty kilometers from Lyon.
An exchange format reminiscent of the “great debate” led by President Emmanuel Macron after the “Yellow Vest” demonstrations.
Just before, he will have attended the New Year's greetings from the mayor of a small neighboring town, Orliénas, 2,400 inhabitants, and had lunch with local elected officials, including the constituency deputy Jean-Luc Fugit, organizer of the event.
“Proximity, fieldwork, listening”
Gabriel Attal intends to “feed” his general policy declaration, which he will deliver before Parliament on January 30, from these meetings as well as from his interviews with the political, union, employers' forces and the associations of elected officials received these days in Matignon.
Going into the field is an exercise that the new head of government appreciates, inspired by former Prime Minister Jean Castex.
“The proximity, the field, the listening, I continue,” he confided to one of his visitors this week.
Upon his appointment, he had made several trips, five in five days, from the flooded Pas-de-Calais to the Caen market in Calvados, via a college in Yvelines.
Enough to shed a little light on his priorities, which he will only be able to detail on January 30, and which were delayed by the long press conference given this Tuesday by President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke on numerous subjects including he is in charge.
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Gabriel Attal promises “strong measures” to meet the expectations of the “middle classes”, which he often describes as “hard-working France, who get up every morning with the feeling of working for others”.
But he says he is “lucid” about the “uncertain” economic outlook and the “tense” political context, being deprived of an absolute majority in the Assembly.
This exposure is not without risk.
On the Caen market, he was challenged by opponents of the law on immigration or on the situation in the Middle East, their voices sometimes drowned out by the cries of demonstrators.
“I’m not coming to be told everything is fine,” he replied without batting an eyelid.
In Yvelines he was confronted with a first controversy affecting his brand new Minister of Education Amélie Oudéa-Castéra on the private establishment Stanislas, where she educated her children, accused of "abuses" in an Education report national.
Attal, the most popular political figure
But vis-à-vis the Élysée, meeting French people “helps protect the President”.
“Because when we go into the field, we are within shouting distance,” notes political communications specialist Christian Delporte.
His asset remains his popularity, greater than that of the president.
In January, he became the most popular political figure in the polling institute Cluster 17 barometer (conducted on January 13 and 14), dethroning Marine Le Pen in this place.
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His aura can contribute to sending a “more audible” message compared to a presidential speech which seems “demonetized”, analyzes the historian Jean Garrigues.
Contacting the French also allows us not to remain a prisoner of Matignon's "hell", underlines Mayada Boulos, a close friend who directed Jean Castex's communications.
At the same time, Gabriel Attal continues to receive the “living forces” on rue de Varenne.
After bringing together his ministers this Thursday, he received the representatives of employers Medef and CPME and those of the right, whose votes in the Assembly are essential to him.
He also received the unions as well as the leader of the far-right National Rally party Jordan Bardella and must still discuss next week with the left and associations of elected officials.