Nicolas Beytout, director of the newspaper "L'Opinion" believes that the fatal attack on a policewoman in Rambouillet contributed to the failure of Emmanuel Macron's attempt to position himself on sovereign and security matters.
He believes that the President of the Republic has missed the opportunity to prove himself.
The political consequences of the Rambouillet attack in which a policewoman lost her life will, in your opinion, pose a formidable challenge to Emmanuel Macron.
Yes, and first of all because the timing of this despicable act shattered a sequence of political reconquest that the Head of State had just launched on the subject of security, a sovereign theme on which his image is weak.
So, step number one of the operation, an interview with Le Figaro to show his determination.
That was exactly a week ago.
Exactly, and this speech was to be followed, 10 days later, by a new bill on the fight against terrorism that Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, was to present to the Council of Ministers.
This text will be well examined next Wednesday, but right in the middle of this sequence, the throat of a policewoman came to destroy everything that had been projected.
No doubt, on the political level, the operation is failed.
Just because of this chain?
Not only, no.
I believe that there is this time a double challenge which is posed to the executive.
First, because the determined comments on security, chest swelling, martial statements that we have heard from the government and the majority no longer convince many people.
They are always the same words, like a ritornello that many French people no longer listen to.
Then, and this is more worrying, because this time the debate which followed this despicable act has changed angles.
Since this weekend, what is first pointed out by the oppositions (mainly from the right) is the direct link between immigration and terrorism.
Marine Le Pen had never denied using this argument.
But this time the accusation is made much more widely.
And what caused this change of angle?
First, the accumulation of evidence, since the last 3 attacks had already been perpetrated by illegal immigrants. Then the fact that this type of terrorism, practiced by an isolated individual and whose radicalization is rapid, is practically undetectable. No opponent can therefore reasonably claim that, once in power, he would have done better.
Therefore, to have a chance of eliminating this risk of attack, we must go back to the source of the problem, which is in this case illegal immigration, and its political corollary: the regularization of illegal immigrants or their non-expulsion. . This is the formidable challenge that this horrible case of Islamic terrorism poses to the Head of State: to link immigration and security more strongly than ever, two themes which will obviously be at the heart of the 2022 campaign. Two themes on which Emmanuel Macron is considered to have so far too poor a record.