“These are his eighth wishes” since his arrival at the Elysée in 2017, but “the first in a slightly different role”, say those around him.
“Previously, he was a president who governed”, giving impetus to the public policies which occupied an important part of this New Year's speech, explains an advisor. This year, he will be “more in a guarantor role”.
Despite the arrival on December 13 of his historic ally François Bayrou in Matignon, the last jolt of a political year punctuated by crises, Emmanuel Macron therefore intends to maintain a withdrawn posture of “president who presides”, letting the government govern. As has been the case since his camp lost the early legislative elections in the summer following the dissolution of the National Assembly.
“The shadow of dissolution will weigh on these wishes”, because the president “is really cornered” and must try to “restore momentum” to his second five-year term, Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, professor of communications at Sciences, explains to AFP Po.
If he has already outlined a timid mea culpa at the beginning of December, he will perhaps try to open up new perspectives, to keep the little music away from some of his opponents who consider his resignation inevitable before the end of his mandate, in 2027 .
This is the first time that the head of state has spoken since he appointed the centrist as Prime Minister, then a government of heavyweights, with the return of Manuel Valls, Elisabeth Borne and Gérald Darmanin.
A team which relies on the same fragile and minority team in Parliament between the macronie and the Les Républicains party which had supported the previous right-wing Prime Minister Michel Barnier, finally censored three months after his appointment. The Bayrou government therefore faces the same risk of being overthrown by left-wing and far-right deputies.
A year ago, during his greetings, the President of the Republic announced a year of “French pride”, with the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, the Paris Olympic Games and the reopening of Notre-Dame five years later the fire. So many successful bets.
But he also spoke of a year of “rearmament of the Nation” to face the challenges to come.
And there, 2024 did not keep its promises.
The crises and disappointments followed one another: unprecedented peasant rebellion which earned him a stormy appearance at the agricultural show, riots in New Caledonia against a backdrop of institutional impasse that his express visit to the archipelago did not manage to resolve. resolve, halt to the reindustrialization of the country and trial for mismanagement of public finances. And the year ends with desolation and anger in Mayotte, devastated by Cyclone Chido.
Internationally, the war continues in Ukraine and Gaza, even if Emmanuel Macron has achieved some diplomatic successes, by contributing to a ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and the Shiite movement Hezbollah, or by bringing together his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky with US President-elect Donald Trump.
On the political level, the attempt at revival with the appointment of the young Gabriel Attal to Matignon in January did not bear fruit, and the Macronist camp suffered a severe defeat in the European elections in June, far behind the National Rally. .
In the process, Emmanuel Macron therefore decided to dissolve to everyone's surprise, opening the most serious political crisis of the Fifth Republic. Without a majority in the Assembly, fractured into three blocs which do not get along, the country seems ungovernable and enters 2025 without a voted budget despite significant deficits.
Returning from a few days of rest at Fort Brégançon on the Mediterranean, the president will therefore return to these “geopolitical or internal political difficulties”, according to his entourage.
But he should stick to the “big issues”, without dictating solutions as he has done in the past.
