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Emmanuel Macron, once European Wonderboy, now ill-treated president of the French, tests political alchemy: the president of France wants to turn a crisis into an opportunity. At the end of his long-awaited letter to the French, published Sunday evening, Macron announces that he wants to turn "anger into solutions".
It seems that the French president has adopted the beautiful formula of the poet Friedrich Hölderlin, that where there is danger, logically, also the rescuer grows.
For the moment, however, the words of the German romantic seem a poetic wishful thinking. Even the atypical greeting at the end of Macron's almost six-page letter seems like a self-imposed optimism: "With confidence", Macron concludes his letter to the French, en confiance,
A man is studying Macron's letter on the smartphone
Source: AFP
There is not much reason to trust at the moment. Initial polls show that the French do not expect much of the national debate launched by Macron's letter to the French. Seventy percent of respondents do not believe that the debate will lead to "useful actions". Almost 80% believe it will not be managed independently. And only a third party intends to participate.
Leading representatives of the yellow jackets, to whom the letter and the idea of the debate were asked, are unusually unanimous: a "deception maneuver" is mentioned. From a national "Blablabla". Many even claim that they did not even read Macron's letter because they actually expected "his letter of resignation".
"No word on Benalla," the former bodyguard Macron, who must answer for a percussion attack, "the tax evasion of large companies, on people who are dying of hunger, not a word about the referendum popular, none on the abolition of privileges, "rages one of the figures of the dubious movement, Maxime Nicolle, also called" Fly Rider ", in a live stream. Macron wants to give the French "moral action, as if they were the children to whom dad speaks".
In fact, the first part of the letter reads like a tutorial on the social status: after singing a song of praise to the French social state, Macron addresses the fundamental conflict of the demands of the yellow jackets, which at the same time want to pay less taxes but require more civil service: "We can not", writes Macron, "keeping the tax cuts without further reducing our public spending". However, this simple logic does not enjoy much popularity in times of criticism of general capitalism and pre-revolutionary feelings.
Macron cites four main themes that, in his view, correspond to the most pressing demands of the West Yellow: fiscal justice, state organization, eco-trend and democracy reform are on the agenda. Macron raises a total of 34 questions in his letter, which must be answered. No question is taboo. This should translate into a new social contract.
Collective psychoanalysis
This initiative should last until mid-March. "I will give it a report next month," Macron writes, without, however, going into details of how it will be. In his letter, the President clarified that he is still convinced of his key reforms and intends to put an end to it. It leaves no doubt that even the partial abolition of property tax is part of it.
It is not "neither an election nor a referendum", writes Macron. But what will you do if citizens' demands come into conflict with your policies?
In the next two months, Macron wants to make ten trips to the province. The prelude to this collective psychoanalysis will be an event to be held on Tuesday in Grand Bourgtheroulde, a Normandy town of just under 4,000 inhabitants, located 30 kilometers south of Rouen. There Macron will meet 600 mayors of the entire region in the early afternoon.
Resignation or revolution: yellow jackets do not forgive Macron
Source: AFP
From the Elisha's palace it is said that Macron will mainly listen and let the mayors speak. The non-party mayor of the village will personally hand over the case to the president, who was released in his town hall and in all French municipalities in recent weeks. Anyone who wanted to have had the opportunity to express their concerns, criticize the government and make specific requests. Local politicians reported that one of the most common demands was the reintroduction of property tax.
That the notebooks, which were in the municipalities of the whole country, like the cahiers de condoléances it can be called brave or interpreted as a bad omen.
It is certain even before the beginning of the debate that they will not be able to solve the sometimes extremely contradictory demands of the yellow jackets. It is also unlikely that this collective discourse offers an opportunity to reconcile a divided society.
Macron's last resort
Because the yellow jackets had demanded exactly what they got now: a kind of agora, a public forum that gives them the opportunity to interfere in the interests of society and to have a political voice. However, their distrust of politics is so great that they reject most of the debate, even if it has not even started. If it turns out to be a dead birth, then Macron will plunge into even bigger trouble because its last resort was to channel social anger.
It is to be feared that most of the yellow jackets will continue to give vent to their main concern for greater democracy in this case in an anti-democratic way. And even though last weekend's demonstrations have been more peaceful, targeted attacks on journalists and regional newspaper blocks are not optimistic. French news channels can no longer send their unprotected troupe to yellow jackets.
On Saturday a bodyguard of a television crew had a broken nose. Fabien Namias, deputy editor-in-chief of the LCI news network, said that France needed to work as a war zone. In the eyes of many yellow jackets, journalists are simply "bought" by the power of the state.
One day before the start of the debate, Yannick Jadot, the first in command of the French Green Party for the European elections, spoke of "the climate of civil war". And it does not seem exaggerated.
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