Thousands of demonstrators to express their opposition to the Global Security bill this Saturday. Then clashes, sometimes violent, between thugs and police. The scene is not new, it has even become tragically banal. “We have lived for three years with these regular meetings which will remain as an indelible marker of this five-year term”, sighs an influential minister, while wondering “how far this violence will go”. On Friday, during his interview with Brut, Emmanuel Macron admitted it: “Yes, there is violence in our society. “
Since the start of the five-year term, the subjects of contestation are legion: the movement of yellow vests started at the end of 2018, followed a few months later by the pension reform, hampered the country for very long weeks. Community, security and identity tensions have been added to this, around which this year is a historic pandemic coupled with an economic crisis.
VIDEO. Demonstration against the Global Security Law: several incidents in Paris
And now, article 24 which sets fire to the powder. Do not throw any more! “We must return to the essential promise of the presidential campaign: to reconcile the French. Society has never been so divided “, alerted LREM deputy Pierre Person at the start of the week, in Le Parisien.
A France more fractured than ever
In private, Emmanuel Macron was recently moved by these multiple tensions testifying to a France more fractured than ever. “We have a problem and it is deep. Our horizon must be perpetually guided by this objective of not pitting the French against each other, ”he reminded several executives of the majority, aware that this theme will necessarily be addressed during the next presidential election.
“Of course he is aware of it. The challenge of reconciliation is one of its main concerns, ”confirms Stanislas Guerini, the boss of En Marche. “It is a recurring subject of conversation which also influences the decisions he takes”, continues an adviser to the Elysee, citing, for example, the speech of Mureaux, in early October, where “he speaks of his desire to address the root causes of violence, in particular by addressing the education component ”.
However, when Emmanuel Macron stormed power four years ago, the promise of a peaceful society is engraved in gold letters in the marble of his campaign program. “I want to reconcile the French,” repeats the walker from meeting to interview, betting on a “united France” in 2022, at the end of his mandate. Until these words used on the evening of his victory, in front of the Louvre pyramid: “I will gather and I will reconcile, because I want the unity of our people and our country. “A wish that had remained very pious until then.
“The time for a start must come”
“To say that he will appease the country and not get there is a failure, undoubtedly”, admits a member of the government, for whom “the hour of the start” must arrive. “He was nevertheless elected to profoundly transform the country because he is not a lazy king,” defends Minister Sébastien Lecornu. The campaign is also the promise that we will tackle complicated issues, such as separatism. He didn’t cheat on anyone. “
In the corridors of the palace, the subject is in everyone’s mind. Emmanuel Macron regularly inquires of his ministers, but also of his “field sensors”, as he says, of the state of French opinion. Among his main concerns at the moment, identity and community drifts, such as attacks on secularism to which he hopes to provide a response with the bill on separatism, presented Wednesday in the Council of Ministers.
On Friday, in front of Brut journalists, he compared the situation of Mila, violently harassed for having criticized Islam on social networks, to that of Mennel, a former muse of The Voice, shouted for having worn the veil in the TV show. “People do not respect secularism, the fact that one has the right to believe or not to believe, he protested. We went crazy. “
“The president knows he made mistakes”
Mayor of Poissy (Yvelines) and president of the association of elected Génération terrain, Karl Olive is one of those who interact directly with the Head of State: “He is very aware of this raging anger. He also knows he made mistakes. But it also happens that it does not come from him. For example, when some of his team formulate the idea of putting police officers in schools, he is not hot at the time. Except that the idea is already in the public square… I told him that it was humiliating for the teachers, that it would stir up anger in the neighborhoods and confuse the police. In short, that there was no better way to divide people. The idea stayed there …
A relative of Macron also recalls that the crisis of the Yellow Vests – part of the carbon tax – as the blockages around the pension reform – fueled by the controversy around the pivotal age – were first projects defended by Edouard Philippe .
PODCAST. Emmanuel Macron and Edouard Philippe: how the health crisis has strained their relations
“Macron reacted late and it is wrong. But the culprit is all the same the Prime Minister of the time, “denounces a regular visitor to the president, who analyzes the problem from another angle:” His main mistake, in fact, is to have made this promise of reconciliation. However, a politician, even President of the Republic, cannot with his sole action slow down a movement whose roots are deep in society. A sin of pride, probably… ”
Original article by : www.leparisien.fr
