Paris (AFP)
A speech without party favors.
Emmanuel Macron presents his wishes to the French on Thursday at 8:00 p.m. at the end of a particularly trying year, marked by an epidemic that does not weaken and will continue to shake up the presidential agenda in 2021.
The President of the Republic will have "a message of truth, of transparency over an extremely difficult year for the country," said government spokesman Gabriel Attal.
After a year 2020 deemed negative by 82% of French people (+35 points), according to a Harris-Interactive poll, the Head of State should "give perspectives on the future" with "the arrival of the vaccine" and "our economy which must restart ", as well as a" message of unity ", he specifies.
2021 will be a year of "results", "concrete actions" and "pursuit of the reform agenda", promises the Elysee.
"What our fellow citizens expect from us for the year 2021 is to make it a useful year of struggle, recovery and ambition," said Emmanuel Macron, himself suffering from Covid-19, at last Council of Ministers on December 21.
The president wants to regain control after a year 2020 swept by a "historic pandemic, international crises, terrorism, divisions in society and an unprecedented economic and social crisis", in his own words.
And which ended with the death in Mali on Monday of three French soldiers, to whom Prime Minister Jean Castex will pay tribute from Chad, just after the televised wishes of the Head of State at the Elysee Palace.
- "Uncontrolled" -
The health crisis remains the priority of the president, of which it will be, Thursday at the time of the curfew, the ninth televised address, no less, this year.
Addresses which, each time, have broken audience records.
After donning the uniform of a warlord for the first wave of the virus, Emmanuel Macron donned the costume of protective president in the face of the second wave, calling for "unity".
But those who hope for the lifting of the anti-Covid restrictions in 2021 will be at their expense: "it seems quite unlikely that we can alleviate a large number of constraints", according to Mr. Attal, skeptical that cultural places can reopen the January 7.
In addition, the curfew, suspended on December 24 but in effect for Christmas Eve, is expected to be brought forward to 6 p.m. in the most affected regions from January 2.
A measure that the elected officials of the territories concerned even consider too light.
The level of contaminations is on a "fairly high plateau" of 15,000 contaminations per day on average, according to Mr. Attal, far from the target of 5,000.
24,560 Covid patients are hospitalized, including 2,652 in intensive care.
After the mixing of the population during the Christmas holidays, an "uncontrolled resumption of the epidemic" in January is "probable", warns the Scientific Council which guides the government.
To mark this unparalleled year, the promotion of the Legion of Honor of January 1 will pay tribute to people, known or anonymous, mobilized against the Covid-19.
- "Reconstruction" -
To see the end of the tunnel of a virus that will have killed more than 60,000 people in France in 2020, the executive is counting on the deployment of the vaccine campaign, of which caregivers and political leaders of all stripes criticize the slowness.
A strategy "assumed" by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, who wants to take the time for "teaching" in a country where mistrust of vaccines is strong.
While uncertainty remains on the reopening of restaurants and bars on January 20, Emmanuel Macron should also insist on the "economic reconstruction" of the country, thanks to a spending state like never before.
He could also evoke the other files of his five-year term eclipsed by the crisis, such as the pension reform, which will return to the table "as soon as health readability is better", according to an adviser to the executive.
On October 2, the Head of State attacked the regal, by presenting his strategy to fight radical Islam, before the return of the attacks, which led him to harden his security discourse.
Projecting himself towards the presidential election of 2022, Emmanuel Macron, whose confidence rating remains stable at 49% of favorable opinions according to a recent Harris Interactive poll, advances a new slogan: "We, French", which he presents as "a principle of action ".
© 2020 AFP