Guy Lagache recounts his documentary in immersion alongside Emmanuel Macron

• Guy Lagache's documentary

  A President, Europe and War

  will be broadcast on Thursday June 30 at 9:10 p.m. on France 2.

• The journalist, alone with his camera, immersed himself in the diplomatic cell of the Elysée.

  We follow in particular the backstage of the various discussions between Emmanuel Macron and his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts.

• “It's one of the most difficult subjects I've done in my life.

  I had access, but it was not

  open bar

  , explains Guy Lagache.

  Everything was negotiated with them, day after day, hour after hour.

  »

“I wanted to go play ice hockey.

I'm talking to you from the gym.

These two sentences would be anecdotal if they had not been uttered by Vladimir Putin during a telephone interview with Emmanuel Macron on February 20, four days before Russia attacked Ukraine.

These remarks, particularly lunar in view of the geopolitical context, punctuate one of the many strong sequences of

, which France 2 will broadcast on Thursday June 30, at 9:10 p.m.

During the same exchange, we hear the French head of state raising his voice in front of his interlocutor about the Minsk agreements: “I don't know where your lawyer learned the law.

We don't give a damn about the separatists' proposals.

What you're telling me casts doubt on your willingness to negotiate.

»

To speak of an exceptional or landmark documentary is no exaggeration: it plunges the public into the heart of the diplomatic cell of the Elysée and tells the story in progress, from the rise of tensions at the gates of Europe, to the explosion of the conflict and its first consequences.

A war that at the top of the state, no one seems to have wanted to see coming.

"I don't think all is lost"

On February 2, as Russian military exercises multiply around Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron is confident.

"We're going to try to 'de-escalate' all that," he said.

I think all is not lost.

He delivers his analysis: “We didn't think through the end of the Cold War.

On February 7, the French president met his Russian counterpart in Moscow for five hours.

He then considers the situation “worrying”.

The next day, he flew to kyiv where he spoke behind closed doors for three hours with the Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelensky.

During this time, diplomacy finalizes the signing of badly committed industrial contracts: a suspense of which the documentary does not miss a crumb.

Behind the camera, Guy Lagache.

The journalist immersed himself, from the month of January, behind the scenes of the Elysée.

His project, at the start, was quite different: "Telling Europe at a human level" and "in an educational way" at a time when France is taking over the presidency of the Council of the European Union for six months.

The war in Ukraine completely upset his plans: the change of angle was essential.

"It's one of the most difficult subjects I've done in my life"

“It is the first time in the history of documentaries that we have seen the exercise of power in France”, underlined the reporter who presented his production to a handful of media on Monday, including

.

Guy Lagache shot all the images alone.

He managed to slip his camera to the Elysée bunker where a defense council was taking place.

“It's one of the most difficult subjects I've done in my life.

I had access, but it was not

, he explains.

Everything was negotiated with them, day after day, hour after hour.

Once you enter the first day, don't take the second for granted.

Everything has to be started over.

We had to take the time to establish a relationship of trust.

Wasn't there a risk of falling into the com plan?

“The fact that I am not a political journalist means that I am not polluted by the habit of covering Emmanuel Macron through the prism of politics, replies Guy Lagache.

That there is work on communication, I have no doubt.

Is the fact that he is going to kyiv with three other heads of state an act of political communication?

Obviously.

“And to specify that he filmed calls” for hours “and that” what is certain is that when you have a phone call from Putin, you do not know what will happen.

»

Only one deleted sequence

Guy Lagache was on the trip – by train – on June 16, alongside Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and Mario Draghi who were traveling to Ukraine to meet Volodymyr Zelensky there.

In the wagon, he interviewed the French president.

The sequence does not appear in the working copy that we were invited to view, but the journalist claims to have asked him "all the questions that seemed important", in particular his exhortation to "not humiliate Russia".

“What interests me is what's the point of saying that?

Why project ourselves into the future when we are in the now?, asks Guy Lagache.

We see that there is a strategy behind this, the desire to prepare the end [of the conflict], of course, but also to oppose the Anglo-Saxon strategy.

»

At the time of writing these lines, Emmanuel Macron has not yet seen this documentary.

Emmanuel Bonne, the head of the French diplomatic cell was entitled to a “technical” viewing.

“I wanted to make sure that the elements broadcast are not secret-Defense or classified and therefore not in a position to undermine national security, indicates the journalist.

There's only one thing I took out, very confidential information.

This takes nothing away from the interest that

can have for the public who will be able to judge what has failed.

And what didn't work.

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• Television

• Emmanuel Macron

• War in Ukraine

• France 2

• Documentary

• Media

• Volodymyr Zelensky

• Vladimir Poutine