It is an unprecedented format to which the President of the Republic has lent himself this Wednesday evening.
A film of nearly two hours, shot on Sunday under live conditions, to retrace five years of political action at the Élysée, to talk about current events and to evoke the future of France.
All interspersed with strong images of the five-year term.
Emmanuel Macron, after months of discussion with the TF1 group, finally agreed to comply with the exercise.
An exercise during which all the questions could be put to him, ensured upstream the direction of the information of the channel.
All the highlights of Emmanuel Macron's mandate have been explored this evening, starting of course with the yellow vests crisis or the health crisis.
The President of the Republic, for the second time since the start of the pre-campaign, has obviously not escaped the famous question of candidacy.
But there is little doubt that the head of state has embarked on an unofficial campaign, to the chagrin of his future opponents, who demand that his speaking time be counted.
The summary of the evening.
"We are almost at the vaccination obligation"
The credits of the show set the tone. As a summary of the interview, we see the highlights of the five-year term of the President of the Republic. But why this exercise? “Because I think it's useful! ", He launches, evoking the need to recall" what has been done ". Emmanuel Macron recognizes a “difficult” five-year term for all French people. We have gone through very difficult times, times of anguish, "and especially this epidemic". The first theme of the evening was launched.
Regarding the Covid, the Head of State believes that the peak of admissions to intensive care units should be reached between Christmas and New Year's Day.
He defends once again the need to get vaccinated.
Whether for the booster dose for those who still have not been bitten.
To go further, he considers it desirable to open up vaccination to children aged 5 to 11, leaving the choice to the parents.
"We are almost at the vaccination obligation", he estimates, recalling that 90% of the population able to be vaccinated is vaccinated.
An "whatever the cost" assumed
But since the evening show aims to take stock of the five-year term, Emmanuel Macron is invited to comment on the management of the crisis. Starting with the decision to confine the entire country, one day in March 2020. “We were aware that this virus was formidable (…) We saw death lurking. We thought for a very long time that we would manage to confine things "by dealing with the first cases detected. Emmanuel Macron disputes the idea that France "was destitute" at the time. But faced with the hospital overflow, the Head of State confirms having had to resort to the “most archaic” solution, “like all countries in the world”.
This crisis, unprecedented in recent history, raises the subject of the state of the public hospital. Macron recalls having taken measures in 2018 to help hospital medicine. Like a little mea culpa, he believes today that he perhaps did not go far enough then. He now calls for "to restore power to those who treat" Economically, Emmanuel Macron says to assume "whatever the cost". Loans guaranteed by the State, partial unemployment, the solidarity fund. " The result is there ! "He explains, arguing that the unemployment rate" is at its lowest for 15 years ".
When commenting on what he keeps from this very special period, and from which the country has not left, the President of the Republic lowers a tone.
"It made me touch more directly unbearable inequalities," he said, remembering these French people confined in cramped apartments and who applauded caregivers at their window, every evening at 8 pm.
New regret: "I think what I said in 2018 was right, but I think I do not sufficiently measure the sense of urgency before the crisis".
Small hurtful phrases
After the Covid sequence, the President of the Republic is faced with the offensive sentences that have punctuated his five-year term.
When, for example, he invited a young person to cross the street to find a job, or when he spoke of "those who are nothing" in front of those who have succeeded.
It is this last sentence that he says he particularly regrets.
But he also defends his speeches with a form of vitality and a desire to "shake things up".
He also believes that the meaning of his words could have been distorted by an evil of our time: "the society of decontextualization".
For the first time, Emmanuel Macron expresses regret over his "little phrases" crossing the street to find work, those who are nothing ... "there are words that can hurt" # MacronTF1
- Marie-Aline MELIYI (@MAMELIYI) December 15, 2021
There are the words, but also the images.
This photo taken in Saint-Martin between two young people, one of whom is split with a middle finger.
“By temperament I do not protect myself.
But we must protect the function ”.
He recognizes a form of naivety in the face of these young people who "played fools".
The Benalla affair?
A "summer affair"
During his five-year term, Emmanuel Macron did not escape business.
Wasn't he the one who said "let them come and get me" in front of the members of the majority when the affair broke?
“We talked about a state affair, it was more of a summer affair,” he comments today.
He was judged as all justiciable.
It is not Alexandre Benalla who was attacked in the summer of 2018 by the oppositions, it is your servant, by saying that there was a dysfunctional system at the Élysée (…).
What did it come out of?
It made pschitt "
The Yellow Vests and "absurd violence"
Before the health crisis, another crisis could have remained as the major fact of Emmanuel Macron's five-year term. The Yellow Vest crisis, tens of thousands of demonstrators for weeks on end, incredible violence, a burnt-out prefecture in Puy-en-Velay. “I was touched, marked when the Arc de Triomphe was soiled,” he said. I saw the absurd violence of those who wanted to break the statues. Then I have the dismay and the anger of the residents (…) We lived at a time when violence returned to the streets. I have seen people in the public debate who, too happy to see the government in trouble, legitimized this. "
Does he consider himself responsible for this crisis?
No.
Mistakes have been made, but not all of them belong to him.
He recalls that the carbon tax was not decided upon under his mandate.
But what about 80km / h?
"We took decisions that were experienced as decisions preventing our compatriots from living decently".
And which may have been applied "too uniformly" over the territory.
On the economy, a balance sheet and a program?
"Something has happened in our economic life", continues the Head of State. For him, the revolution promised five years ago "is still underway". He welcomes the creation of "a million jobs", the strength of the use of apprenticeship. “I think something is changing that we must continue to educate better and be more fair. "And denies having taken decisions too late, recalling that the reform of unemployment insurance was taken in the fall of 2019, before being postponed due to the health crisis. “Thanks to the good results, we put it back and we change the rules, we make work more incentive and we now have to work 6 months and more 4 to get unemployment, it's not nothing! “On a European scale, Emmanuel Macron is a great architect of the recovery plan,750 billion euros, alongside Angela Merkel.
The President of the Republic defends the abolition of the ISF, which he "fully assumes".
“Our country has deindustrialised, the rich were going to invest elsewhere.
We cannot finance the social model without investment.
I neither hate nor worship money.
I just want that we find the culture of recognizing the culture of success, which makes it possible to make our economy stronger.
Emmanuel Macron refuses here to pass for the president of the rich, recalling the increase in the disabled adult allowance, the minimum old age and the gradual abolition of the housing tax.
The postponement of the pension reform justified
This was to be one of the pillars of his five-year term, promised in the 2017 campaign and finally abandoned.
Pension reform.
"If there had not been the health crisis, this reform would have come to an end," swears Emmanuel Macron, who still considers it essential.
Simply, he believes that it will have to be retouched to respond to the funding problem.
This means, according to him, that the French will have to work longer.
“Working longer does not mean the same reality” for all French people.
This opens the way to taking into account the arduousness in particular.
Emmanuel Macron renounces the implementation of a single pension plan.
"It's too anxiety-provoking", he believes today, advancing the idea of "three major regimes".
No deletions of civil servants recorded
While Valérie Pécresse has pledged to cut 150,000 civil servant positions, the President of the Republic believes that the debate should not be posed as well.
He defends a modernization of the public service.
"When we do the withholding tax, we reduce the number of officials," he explained.
Yes, we need a more efficient state, but the heart of the economy in 5 or 10 years does not lie in reducing the number of civil servants.
"
Hulot case: Macron assumes
When the Hulot affair erupted into public debate in 2018, the government had formed a body around the Minister of Energy Transition.
A few weeks after the publication of several testimonies and the filing of a new complaint, facing the camera, the President of the Republic defends his position at the time.
“Hulot then denied, we looked to see if there were any subjects to know, there weren't any.
He firmly denied, told us it was wrong, he remained minister.
He believes that justice must be able to be done in a peaceful way.
“If on the basis of an accusation you say it's over then justice can no longer do its job.
"
The death of Samuel Paty, "a shock"
All the French remember it.
The beheading of a teacher.
"A moment of astonishment that we have all lived", comments Emmanuel Macron.
“It's a French family, Samuel Paty's parents are admirable people.
When our society is so affected by the abject, of course you have sadness and at the same time you must continue to act.
"
To act is therefore to fight against terrorism.
Thirty attacks have thus been foiled on French soil in recent years.
To act is also to lead a cultural and civilizational fight.
"We must be intractable with those who want to undermine the Republic," explains Emmanuel Macron, calling for avoiding the amalgamation between this project of division, of separatism and Islam.
"
Zemmour, first names, and Joséphine Baker
Without ever quoting the polemicist during this interview, Emmanuel Macron is invited to return to the first name controversy, after Zemmour proposed to impose French first names. The president shows the camera a letter written by schoolchildren, in tribute to Josephine Baker, recently pantheonized. “Undoubtedly several of these children believe in Islam, all these children are moved by the same dream. The Nation and the Republic. Joséphine Baker said, first we have homework. "
For the Head of State, France has always been a land of immigration.
He regrets that some people talk about zero immigration, which has never existed in the country.
On the other hand, Emmanuel Macron believes that France has not sufficiently integrated.
“We built neighborhoods where we put everyone, all the difficulties in the same places.
Now for some time immigration increases, the networks are organized.
We need to reform Schengen, protect Europe's borders and break down trafficking networks, but we will need to help developing countries.
"
No candidate announcement
The opposite would have been surprising, Emmanuel Macron did not announce his candidacy for a second term on Wednesday evening. "I said that I will work until the last quarter of an hour", he is satisfied at first to announce, echoing his speech of presentation of the French presidency of the European Union. The question will be asked again at the end of the program. “When we want to make the revolution, we project ourselves. If the question is do you have ambition, do you plan to go beyond the next few months, it is obvious, ”he says. But the time would still be for the management of the responsibilities of President of the Republic. “I also need to consolidate my thinking in my heart (…) If I were a candidate I could not make the decisions that I take, that I must take.I owe them to keep the promise I made to them. I must be able to take the same risks, the same freedom. I was not elected when I was a candidate, I was not even a civil servant. "
Is the Macron of 2022 the same?
Invited to talk about his own experience at the head of state, Emmanuel Macron says he has learned "to love them better".
Because at the beginning of his mandate, he admits having been able to be “hard” and “impetuous”.
He defends his method.
“The at the same time is not fuzzy.
He is fair.
What is effective is right.
We can reform, train and invest.
"
