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Popular Emmanuel Macron? "An obsessive and unfounded refrain"

2021-03-03T10:55:27.352Z


FIGAROVOX / TRIBUNE - Emmanuel Macron would enjoy a higher popularity rating than his predecessors, according to the polls. However, nothing shows that the French approve the policy of the executive, writes Maxime Tandonnet.


A keen observer of French political life and regular contributor to the FigaroVox, Maxime Tandonnet has notably published

André Tardieu.

The misunderstood

(Perrin, 2019).

Emmanuel Macron would be a

“popular”

president

compared to François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.

"With 41% satisfaction, the tenant of the Elysee is in a more comfortable situation than that of François Hollande (22%) and Nicolas Sarkozy (31%) at the same time of their mandate"

, can we read on the site of Paris-Match, which is based on an Ifop poll.

This evidence emerges from most of the comments.

The refrain, as obsessive, is essential in the media.

It presents itself as a politico-media dogma, a recognized and admitted fact, an almost official truth.

We are undergoing a real hype on the popularity of the President of the Republic, supposedly superior to that of his two predecessors:

  • The popularity of the Head of State is up 3 points in November, going from 38 to 41% of favorable opinions.

    Figures higher than those of his predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy (32%) and François Hollande (27%) at the same stage of their mandate.

    "(LCI, November 22, 2020)

  • “The popularity of Emmanuel Macron, at this stage of his mandate, is higher than that of Sarkozy (31%) and François Hollande (27%)

    .

    "

    (AFP report, December 20, 2020)

  • The popularity rating of Emmanuel Macron is up two points and higher than that of his immediate predecessors François Hollande (24%) and Nicolas Sarkozy (30%).

    »(Le Point, Jan. 24, 2021)

  • The Head of State has gained one point in one month in our Ifop barometer, with 41% satisfaction.

    While it remains largely unpopular, its support base is solid.

    François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, for example, were at this time of their five-year term respectively at 19% and 31%

    ”(JDD, February 21, 2021)

The insistence on bringing President Macron's level of popularity closer to that of François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy is fraught with significance.

If the objective is to convince that the head of state is a popular president, the level of around 40% is not enough: far from the majority of 50%.

Hence the systematic recourse to comparison with François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy supposedly favorable to the current occupant of the Elysee Palace.

In the background, the message is clear: if the two predecessors of President Macron have not managed to obtain a second term, the latter is in a more favorable situation which opens the way to success in 2022.

We are undergoing a real hype on the popularity of the President of the Republic

Maxime Tandonnet

Comparison right?

The bias of this reasoning is due to the radical difference which opposes the period 2007-2017 to that which France has been experiencing for a year.

The health crisis is undoubtedly the greatest upheaval that our country has known since the Algerian war: 82,000 deaths, economic and social shipwreck, ruin of many professional categories, annihilation of freedoms, in particular the freedom to go. and come.

This hurricane naturally produces a legitimist reflex around the Head of State.

Part of the French in turmoil - as often in history - turned to the “guide of the nation”.

François Hollande had benefited from this phenomenon after the

Charlie Hebdo

attack

and the kosher store in January 2015 (+ 20%).

In contrast, the Covid-19 earthquake is prolonged indefinitely over time and the legitimist reflex thus operates in a much more widespread manner.

In addition, the health crisis has completely upset the French landscape.

The political regime has been radically transformed.

Liberal and parliamentary democracy has been de facto suspended in favor of an indefinitely prolonged state of emergency.

Under the cover of fear of Covid-19, Parliament has been marginalized.

The freedom to come and go, the mother of all freedoms, has been conditioned.

The oppositions are locked in silence, complacency, prudence or self-censorship.

A single health thought is in full swing and any dissenting thought or word is doomed to complaining.

The major social debates (unemployment, poverty, security, purchasing power, immigration) have vanished.

The nature of the new regime remains to be defined.

Post-democratic?

Authoritarian?

In fact, the virtual extinction of social or intellectual protest and criticism (even caricature), contrasts sharply with the daily lynching of the two previous presidents.

The virtual extinction of social or intellectual protest and criticism (even caricature), in stark contrast to the daily lynching of the two previous presidents

Maxime Tandonnet

A Head of State of the Fifth Republic has traditionally two missions: one of incarnation of the country (

"the father of the nation"

) and the other of government.

Opinion polls show that the French are not satisfied with the way France is governed: 81% believe that the executive

"does not know where it is going"

(Odoxa-

Figaro

poll

of February 4).

The allegiance of 40% of them to President Macron is therefore linked to the emblematic function of the latter and to the quest for a protector, a symbol of authority or a savior.

This level of confidence hardly seems to depend on the approval of a policy, the awareness of successful reforms or satisfactory results on the economic, social or security plan.

It corresponds to an emotional or affective phenomenon around a mediatized figure.

It is part of the psychology of crowd in a troubled time and mainly affects the people and categories most exposed to fear.

This is why the eternal comparison of President Macron's confidence rating with that of his two predecessors is largely unfounded.

Behind the stability of the presidential rating for a year, the political future of the country has never been so uncertain.

Can the climate of relative allegiance to the Head of State last another year until the elections?

In fact, it will last as long as fear continues to haunt people's minds.

Moreover, will this 40% confidence rating retain all its relevance as the electoral deadlines approach, when it will be necessary to talk again about the balance sheet and the project?

Are the inertia and immobility of the period the calm that prepares the storm?

In fact, under the cover of the health crisis, France is sliding towards an abyss of political uncertainty which has hardly any precedent ...

To read also: Guillaume Tabard: "Emmanuel Macron wants to talk to young people but keep seniors"

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-03-03

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