There was yet another update on the Covid pandemic, a “procession” of achievements during his presidency so far, an unattributed quotation from French historian Marc Bloch, and a few clichés worthy of the best traditions of French popular songs. That broadly sums up President Emmanuel Macron's traditional New Year's address to the nation on Friday - the last of his five-year presidency - which was a kind of medley of his previous annual broadcasts.
In a few weeks the president will officially announce his candidature for the presidential election in April. In the meantime he is making the most of the last formal opportunities that his office affords to refine his approach for the forthcoming campaign and to trumpet his past actions. “For France 2022 will be a decisive year, one of action and yet more action,” he said.
Before his television address the head of state had already showcased himself in a video of the year's highlights that was pushed out on social media. This featured jokes with popular French YouTubers McFly and Carlito, some crisp images and rousing music. But it contained no mention of his backpedalling over commitments made over the Citizens' Convention on Climate, on his strategy of international arms sales or of the plight of migrants at Calais.
Enlargement : Illustration 1
Instead, Emmanuel Macron continued to describe a parallel universe. In his message he called for the nation to remain “united, kind, and together” and to “respect our differences”. He spoke of the “spirit of tolerance” and of “a certain idea of Humanity”, proclaiming himself to be “resolutely optimistic for the coming year”, hoping that people would “embrace life”. These phrases sounded not just empty but also deeply at odds with the events of 2021.
How was the candidate for the ruling party La République en Marche (LREM) at the local elections in the Hérault département or county in the south of France, who was rejected because she wore a veil, to interpret the expression “respecting our differences”? What did university staff accused of “Islamo-leftism” by the minister for higher education, Frédérique Vidal, think of the reference to a “certain idea of Humanity”? What were the thoughts of the thousands of young people living in poverty when they heard the president explain that “despite the hardships, France is stronger than it was two years ago”?
While he took care to address a full range of issues, with the presidential elections looming, the head of state nonetheless devoted the core of his comments to the Covid health crisis. He spoke about the “weapon of the vaccine” and the “acquired knowledge of our collective experience” faced with the pandemic. “Obligations should be considered before rights,” he said, targeting those who have not been vaccinated in the same terms he used to address illegal immigrants in May 2021. He predicted that the coming weeks would be “difficult”. But the president said that there were “real reasons for hope” this year. “I'd like to think, as you do, that 2022 is perhaps the year of the end of the epidemic; the year in which we can see the way out of this never-ending day,” he stated, applauding the “proportionate measures” taken by his government in recent days, even if some critics consider them to constitute a huge risk for hospitals.
The second part of the president's address was about France's presidency of the European Union Council, which began on January 1st. “You can count on my total commitment to make this time … one of progress for you,” the president told the French people, once again stating that a priority was “controlling our borders”.
The head of state ended his New Year message by talking for the first time about the forthcoming presidential and Parliamentary elections, though this was simply to say that he would take “particular care” to ensure that the two polls “take place in the best possible circumstances” despite the pandemic. “I will continue to take action right to the last day of the mandate to which you elected me,” he repeated.
“So this year we have major decisions to take for our nation. We will make these decisions with the conviction that France has a particular, unique path to follow,” President Macron said, appearing to suggest he was part of that process of continuity. However, he was careful not to appear presumptuous. “As for me, whatever my place and circumstances I will continue to serve you,” he said.
It was at this moment in his address President Macron chose to appropriate a line from the French historian Marc Bloch's 1940 work L’Étrange défaite ('Strange Defeat'): “France will remain, whatever happens, the one country with which my deepest emotions are inextricably bound up.” The book's title later produced a few mocking comments from some, including political adversaries. “Is that a prophetic title for him in 2022?” Tweeted Alexis Corbière, the Member of Parliament for the radical left La France Insoumise party.
The president's address was applauded by his supporters but attracted widespread criticism from his opponents, who are also in full campaign mode. Many followed the head of the Senate group for the right-wing Les Républicains party, Bruno Retailleau, in seeing the New Year's message as “self-satisfied”. The president of the far-right Rassemblement National, Marine Le Pen, described the presidential address as being “out of touch with reality”.
“President Macron's New Year message for 2022 is that of a president who is already a candidate but still out of touch, of a president trapped in denial,” wrote the national secretary of the Europe Écologie-Les Verts (EELV) green party Julien Bayou. And the French Communist party presidential candidate Fabien Roussel Tweeted: “Macron isn't vaccinated against disconnection. He lives in a parallel world.”
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- The original French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter