Passing incognito at the start of the 2002 presidential campaign, the centrist became known a few days before the first round for having slammed a child who was “picking his pockets”. In a France that is worried about insecurity, the images hit the mark and change its political future.
A gesture much stronger than words. Nearly 20 years before his appointment to Matignon, François Bayrou was remembered by slapping a boy. Until now a candidate for punishment, the exchange will allow him to make himself widely known to the French and build an image as a rebel.
On April 9, 2001, 12 days before the first round, the UDF candidate, the ancestor of Modem, walked the alleys of a city in a district of Strasbourg. His campaign is struggling to take off in a politically gloomy atmosphere, between Lionel Jospin who is struggling to give direction and Jacques Chirac who is rather discreet.
“It’s going to be the end of his career”
Until now under the media radar, François Bayrou knows he is on conquered ground in Alsace, a historically centrist land. While he talks with residents of the Meinau district, children gather around the candidate. A young person then takes advantage of the situation to put his hands in the centrist’s pants pockets.
François Bayrou suddenly slams him and says: “you’re not picking my pockets”. The boy then defends himself while François Bayrou retorts that “if you picked my pockets”.
The moment made the rounds on television news the same evening, to the great dismay of his team, frozen by the sequence.
“We were very afraid, because there is nothing worse for a politician than to be violent. We said to ourselves, he is going to collapse, it will be the end of his career”, summarizes Patrick Mignola, then a member of his team, with France info years later.
Explosion in the polls
And yet. The very next day, François Bayrou went to the Europe 1 studios. Proof that the sequence was popular: it was Arnaud Lagardère himself who served him coffee before his appearance on the radio, as reported by Le Figaro. As for the presenter, Jean-Pierre Elkabbach, he says with a smile: “you say that you are a fan of Bill Clinton, that you are a Clintonite. We dream of hearing Clinton say that he is a Bayrouist.”
A few days later, a Le Monde poll for the Novatris institute revealed that the image appealed to undecided voters. The centrist gained almost 10% in just one week and entered the top three candidates preferred by those surveyed.
Even better: when asked about the fact that stood out to them for each candidate, two out of three respondents mentioned the slap given by the UDF candidate to the boy who wanted to pick his pocket in Strasbourg, while the other candidates did not evoke any salient memory.
“I know the French”
It must be said that the context works in François Bayrou’s favor. The question of insecurity is at the heart of the campaign without either of the two favorites managing to respond to the concerns.
Lionel Jospin publicly acknowledges his “naivety” in this matter. As for Jacques Chirac, who is spending his first campaign trip there, his proposals do not print.
“It is now necessary for firmness to be expressed, which is not devoid, when it comes to a child, of benevolence,” explains François Bayrou, the day after the slap on Europe 1.
“I know the French. They will be grateful for this gesture,” he adds in Le Parisien.
A launching pad
Result in the polls in the first round: the centrist exceeds the 6% mark, a very honorable score for someone who has long been below 3% in voting intentions. Even more symbolic: for nearly ten days, the centrist was considered the third man in the presidential election, allowing him to tour the media. The enviable title was previously held by Jean-Pierre Chevènement.
This political sequence also gives him oxygen for the future. Far from returning to the fold of Jacques Chirac re-elected president, as centrists generally do after the elections, François Bayrou takes his autonomy.
Exit the merger between the new right-wing party the UMP and the UDF, led by the centrist to the great displeasure of the head of state. François Bayrou even has the luxury of launching a new party, Modem.
A good score in 2012
This slap also allows him to remain lastingly in the memory of the French, while waiting for the next presidential election, in 2007. Five years later, arriving in third position with the flattering score of almost 17% of the votes, he is at the heart of the game of between two turns.
Enough to allow him, after crossing the desert and a disastrous presidential election in 2012, to rally Emmanuel Macron in 2017. 7 years later, here he is at Matignon.
As for the child who propelled François Bayrou, he took two additional slaps from his parents as Libération explains. But his family at the same time considers it “disgusting” that the centrist is “using it to run his campaign”.
