The instruction was passed to ministerial cabinets last Friday. Please be discreet in the morning hours at the start of the week. This time would be that of the executive couple. Jean Castex, first of all, Monday morning on France Info. Then Emmanuel Macron on TF1 and France 2, Wednesday evening, some sixty hours later. Of course, there is “nothing incompatible”, argues the entourage of the Head of State, while Matignon evokes “a combination of circumstances”. It prevents. That the President of the Republic speaks only three days apart after his Prime Minister has nothing in common.
A pas de deux as an offensive, while the hot issues accumulate on the health, economic and security plans – “It’s multifront” blows a ministerial adviser. But at the risk of duplicating, or even fueling the feeling that “no one listens to Castex” as a former government communicator judges. “If Macron speaks, he comes back down to the arena. But he took Castex precisely to run the store, ”observes a ministerial adviser.
“We go up a notch, we go up in solemnity”
This Monday, the interview with the Prime Minister, scheduled on the occasion of his hundred days in Matignon, did not give rise to any announcement. If this is not the arrival on October 22 of a new version of the StopCovid application – renamed “Télécovid” in a slip. “What do we remember? »Asks an LREM deputy. A hardening of the tone in the face of a “strong second wave” of the coronavirus epidemic (the Prime Minister, dixit), which gives shape to what Matignon calls “the graduated response”.
VIDEO. Second wave: “Generalized re-containment must be avoided”, Castex alert
“There can no longer be any relaxation”, warned Jean Castex, for whom “the French considered a little too quickly, despite the speeches we were making, that this virus had disappeared”. The Prime Minister does not intend to stop there, reserving the possibility of travel or new speeches on this theme. He will also hold, this Tuesday evening in Matignon, a working meeting focused on the health situation and extended to the ministers concerned but not participating in the Defense Council. Meeting which he now intends to make a weekly meeting. So much for the atmosphere on the eve of the All Saints holidays …
“We go up a notch, we go up in solemnity, says an adviser to the executive. The Prime Minister prepares the ground, prepares the spirits, with a turn of screw of the president. »What about new coercive measures? The question was under discussion at the top of the state, but nothing was decided on Monday. A new Defense Council is to be held this Tuesday morning.
“There is a moment of gravity”
Such as to feed suspense and redouble expectations, before the interview with the Head of State which “will focus in particular on the health and economic situation of the country” according to TF1 and France 2. Why speak now? “There is a moment of gravity with a very strong, multiterritorial epidemic, which continues to have consequences. There is a need to give a trajectory, to explain what it means to live with the virus, to explain that it will last a long time “, we explain at the Elysee, promising” announcements and a course ” .
A relative sums up: “The president takes the floor again at a time when we are a little dizzy. He will give a perspective, talk about the resilience of the French people. “What to satisfy this parliamentarian LREM, who awaits” a clear strategy “judging that” basically, what has weighed on the morale of the French is a succession of contradictory injunctions “.
Need to speak, therefore. But also to be heard. François Bayrou, High Commissioner for Planning, noted it recently, in a small committee: “The president has probably noticed that public expressions have not, until now, reached public opinion in depth. However, the gravity of the situation is growing. “
Original article by : www.leparisien.fr