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Emmanuel Macron assumes, despite the criticism: he will not debate before his competitors by the first round of the presidential election. But such a posture is not to the taste of some of his opponents, some of whom point to a risk of “illegitimacy” in the event of re-election. We take stock.
Where does this controversy come from?
Of two texts published on Tuesday then Wednesday evening. In an interview with Le Figaro, the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher (Les Républicains), first of all considered that “if there is no campaign, the question of the legitimacy of the winner will arise”. “The President of the Republic wants to be re-elected without ever having been a real candidate, without a campaign, without a debate, without a confrontation of ideas. All the candidates are debating except him. It’s a paradox! “Added the elected Yvelines.
The next day, a group launched the slogan “PasDeDébatPasDeMandat” in Liberation. “Here comes the ballot… and the campaign is hidden from under our feet. Behind the strategy of tacit renewal, there are in the head of the renewed images of motorways oropen bar. Don’t let him. He hides? #OnVaLeChercher ”, write these personalities committed to the left and opposed to Emmanuel Macron, such as the philosopher Frédéric Lordon and the feminist activist Caroline de Haas. The keyword was then also relayed on social networks by personalities on the right or even on the far right, like Éric Zemmour himself.
The sovereignist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, one of the twelve qualified candidates for the presidential election, even spoke of a potentially “rigged” election.
Is this a valid accusation?
The political scientist Olivier Rouquan recalls it from the outset: “The central legitimacy in democracy remains the election”. If the ballot takes place under the conditions provided for by the Constitution and a candidate (Emmanuel Macron or another) wins the majority of the votes in the second round, it is difficult to say that he will be “illegitimate”. “Whoever is elected will be, period. But there is a fundamental problem, with a declining quality of political debate, ”adds the deputy La France insoumise Alexis Corbière.
The current campaign is indeed special. Not so much by the fact that the candidate president Macron refuses to debate with his adversaries, since Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac in their time had done the same. But rather because this electoral campaign was crushed by other news, mainly the Covid pandemic and then the war in Ukraine.
“The risk is that Emmanuel Macron will be re-elected for the trust placed in him in order to resolve major crises rather than on his project and his proposals”, develops Olivier Rouquan. According to him, the Head of State “will have to (if he is re-elected, editor’s note) take into account the very specific conditions of his election”. Such a call had been made to Jacques Chirac after his very broad re-election against Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2002.
What does the Head of State say?
His response was firm on Thursday evening, at the conclusion of his press conference during which he presented his program. “A president of the Senate should not say that”, he first replied to the question of a journalist devoted to the words of Gérard Larcher. “Anyone who is supposed to carry universal suffrage and whose legitimacy comes from elected officials should not have fun questioning the legitimacy of any elected official whatsoever, including when they are people he does not like, it is not is not a good idea, ”he continued.
Earlier in the week, his supporters had taken it upon themselves to fight back. The Minister of Agriculture Julien Denormandie, tipped for a time to be his campaign manager, denounced Tuesday on France Inter “irresponsible remarks” of the President of the Senate.