Emmanuel Macron promises a “meeting with the nation” in January to “maintain the unity of the country”

2023-12-09 13:24:35

“The time has come for a meeting with the nation. » During a visit to the Pantheon (Paris Fifth) this Friday, Emmanuel Macron told the Monde that he will organize “a meeting” in January, without specifying the outlines or the timetable. The Head of State made the announcement while choosing the tomb where Missak Manouchian, worker, communist and poet, survivor of the Armenian genocide and figure of the Resistance, and his wife will rest during their pantheonization on February 21 2024.

Emmanuel Macron thus wishes to send a “message of unity”. “Between denial and hyperdramatization, there is a place for a demanding lucidity which consists of looking at the country’s problems but also not letting it dismantle,” he states. In Le Monde, the Head of State evokes the need to “remind France of itself” and “what it is”, “what constitutes us” as a people.

According to our information, this January meeting must be dissociated from the traditional wishes of the president given on the evening of December 31.

“Giving back the meaning of what it means to be French”

The unity of the country has been undermined for several months, marked by current events, notably by the death of Professor Dominique Bernard in Arras, the attack on the Bir-Hakeim bridge, but also the subsequent rise in anti-Semitism. to the war between Israel and Hamas. The government also feared “the risk of a shift in society if we are not up to the task” after the death of Thomas, a young rugby player stabbed in the Drôme on November 19. Calls for revenge have multiplied since the tragedy within identity circles and several ultra-right demonstrations have been banned in France.

The head of state is also widely criticized on the issue of secularism after he was seen during the Hanouka ceremony at the Élysée, during which the chief rabbi of France lit the first candle of the traditional festival Jewish.

VIDEO. Hanouka at the Élysée: Borne defends the presence of Macron, “an error” for Crif… what we know about the controversy

“His message is republican universalism which is deployed in all his action, it is our issue”, indicates a close friend of the president to Le Parisien. “The French ask for meaning: who are we, where are we going? For the president, the imagination leads, the identity follows. We must restore the meaning of what it is to be French,” he adds.

“The year 2024 will be that of French pride and universalism,” promises this support from the president. Manouchian’s entry into the Pantheon will take place on February 21. The commemorations of June 6, 1944 will follow, the Euro football tournament where France is the favorite before of course the Olympic Games in Paris.