Emmanuel Macron wanted “hit in the bag”, his friend Karl Olive, the mayor of Poissy, had assured us. For the first exercise of the campagne du chef de l’Etat, unofficially candidate to sa réélection, l’édile promettait to confront the locataire de l’Elysée à la réalité du terrain face à un public exigent dans sa ville des Yvelines, Monday 7 March. “It will be anything but a political rally where the candidate is applauded until the time strikes,” assured the former member of the party Les Républicains (LR). The town of Poissy looked like a proper ring from “Poissy is France”, explained: 7% unemployment rate, 32% social housing and 20% population of immigrant origin.

Arriving with a delay limited to a courtesy quarter of an hour, in an agenda timed by the tragic news of the war in Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron did not give the time this Monday night. But he was applauded. Many. Greeted by a nearly five-minute standing ovation, the president and candidate bowed into a kind of grand debate in a tight format, to defend his record and outline his agenda. Without being completely acquired, the public was, that night, benevolent. In the room, Ibrahim Traoré, 33, a specialized educator, confided in particular not knowing who to vote for but saying “proceed by elimination”. AND “by elimination, we have Emmanuel Macron”He concluded.

A reflection of France? Riding in the lead in the polls with a lead of more than 10 points over all his opponents, the tenant of the Elysée beats him at home: with just over a month to go before the first round, “nothing is acquired”. However, he is a candidate above the fray who dedicated an hour and a half of his time that night to some 200 inhabitants of Poissy invited by the mayor. A unifying president rather than a divisive candidate, who summoned the memory of General de Gaulle and François Mitterrand, champion of “United France”.

“It is difficult to be president and at the same time a candidate”

Before escaping for a ” call “ with the Heads of State and Government of Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom on the subject of the war unleashed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron sought appeasement but also efficiency, composing between his role as president and his vocation as candidate

“I who defended the “at the same time” a lot, it is difficult to be president and candidate at the same time”granted, promised “to deploy” during the next month “some simple ideas” that will make up its program, which is divided into four « pacts “: a European pact, which aims, in particular, to build a Europe of defense. A pact between generations, where we imagine a pension reform -which was not discussed that afternoon- that could be added to the measures on dependency. A productive pact, making work a “Cardinal Notion” to move towards full employment. And, finally, a republican pact with some lines of force on secularism, immigration and integration.

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