On Saturday, the Head of State will speak in the square in front of the cathedral rebuilt after the fire of April 15, 2019, before its doors open for a liturgical ceremony. The next day, he will attend the first mass in public.
The choreography was the subject of intense negotiations with the diocese: the Elysée wanted a presidential speech inside the religious building, but this option raised more than one eyebrow, within the Church as well. among the defenders of secularism.
Finally, it was last Friday that Emmanuel Macron spoke in Notre-Dame, during a final inspection that looked like a pre-opening, which allowed the world to discover its newfound luster on television.
The opportunity for him to emphasize, once again, that despite all those who said “that it wouldn’t be possible, that it was crazy, that it was arbitrary, that we were going to do it wrong», the «construction site of the century» was completed in five years, as he had promised.
A way of congratulating the craftsmen… and himself, too, for this successful bet.
At the risk of overdoing it, some of his detractors scoff.
«He set up an organization that made it possible to achieve this. Whether he’s trying to make a profit from it or enjoy it, it’s not abnormal», concedes a heavyweight of the government, who is however not Macronist. “God knows there are a certain number of things that annoy me from the head of state, but here I think he was great», Also says the mayor of Béziers Robert Ménard, formerly close to the National Rally, on BFMTV.
“Metaphor”
Of his seven visits since 2019, this one had a special taste. The last, without a helmet or construction suit.
As he put it, Emmanuel Macron sees this titanic work as a “metaphor of the life of the Nation“. Which has several times allowed him to distill barely subliminal political messages.
«You showed the world that nothing resists audacity“, he told the artisans on Friday, welcoming their “unique spirit of brotherhood» which he hopes will “endures» in a country fractured as rarely.
In April 2023, in the midst of a crisis over his contested pension reform, he slipped into the heart of the scaffolding: “Stay the course, that’s my motto».
But what is its “course” this fall? The president lost much of his power when he dissolved the National Assembly in June. And the Prime Minister whom he had to seek out among his opponents, Michel Barnier, will himself have been overthrown by the deputies, barring a twist, when the doors of the cathedral reopen.
During his wishes to the French on December 31, the Head of State predicted that 2024 would be the year of “French pride“, punctuated by the Paris Olympic Games then the reopening of Notre-Dame, emblem of a France “capable, when it unites, of resisting, of getting up again».
The Olympics this summer were an enchanted parenthesis after the turbulent phase of the dissolution and the legislative elections. It’s unclear whether this weekend’s ceremonies will offer the same respite.
Emmanuel Macron hopes to at least take advantage of it to make it a major diplomatic meeting, foreign policy being one of the prerogatives that he retains and works intensely.
He extended invitations to numerous foreign heads of state and government, including the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. Their simultaneous presence in Paris would be an event, especially if it allows a first face-to-face meeting.
Donald Trump has already confirmed his arrival on Saturday, which will also constitute his first trip abroad since his victory in the presidential election on November 5.
But for now, mystery hangs over the list of leaders who will be present. Invited a year ago, Pope Francis, whom the French president speaks informally and likes to meet, decided not to come, withdrawing a little shine in advance at this moment.
Par Le360 (with AFP)
03/12/2024 at 07:01 a.m.
