Emmanuel Macron will be the fifth President of the Republic on Friday to present his wishes before starting a campaign for his re-election.
In their speech of December 31, the axes of the campaign are sometimes very visible while no outgoing president was officially in campaign.
Two of them were re-elected, two were beaten ... especially those who announced a bad year to come.
Can Emmanuel Macron do otherwise?
Emmanuel Macron will present his last wishes to the French in office on Friday evening at 8 p.m.
These will officially be the wishes of a president, not a candidate… even if there is little doubt that the head of state will soon enter the electoral arena, a few weeks before the presidential election.
Will this new television intervention be an opportunity for Emmanuel Macron to limit his future campaign a little more?
Under the Fifth Republic, four presidents elected by universal suffrage have already lent themselves to this exercise of the wishes of the president-candidate without saying so.
What lessons can be learned from this?
20 Minutes
searched in the filing cabinet.
December 31, 1980: Valéry Giscard-d'Estaing
The presidential election is not openly discussed during the last wishes of Valéry Giscard-d'Estaing. It must be said that at that time, he is not in such a bad position: the last poll places him 12 points ahead of François Mitterrand in the second round, which is to be held on May 10. The decline has started, but the Head of State does not yet know. Between the lines, it is still possible to glimpse some of his campaign axes. Thus, “VGE” describes France as a “great country which must remain so”. This strength, which it owes in particular "to the stability and efficiency of its political institutions", allows France to be "esteemed and respected in the world". However, warns the outgoing president, "it takes little to destroy the image of a nation".
For VGE, it is "relaxation, impatience and disunity" that could destroy the greatness of France.
A victory for the left in the elections is undoubtedly included in this.
This is already the whole strategy of dramatization of the stake of his future campaign: playing on the fear of the downgrading of France, the fear of the unknown or even the fear of the Communists (there is a whole verse on December 31 1980 on the question of freedoms) induced by a victory for François Mitterrand.
This strategy was notably embodied in Valéry Giscard-d'Estaing's campaign poster: “France needs a president.
"Understood: with Mitterrand there will be a vacancy of power.
As we know today, this strategy will not work.
December 31, 1987: François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand, then president of the first cohabitation with Jacques Chirac, his future opponent in the presidential election, openly addresses during his vows "the meeting that France has set for itself". The socialist, seemingly not touching it, will describe his campaign themes in detail. These wishes, it is, before the hour, the “Letter to all the French” of the socialist candidate, which will be published in early April, shortly before the first round, in all the national and regional press.
It is sometimes almost literal: on December 31, 1988, the Head of State said that "nothing will be possible without the religion of effort"; in the conclusion of the “Letter”, he affirms that “nothing is ever given” and that “effort is law”. More subtly, we find the absolute priority given to education (“Everything will require knowledge, training”) and a passage on social cohesion: “Social protection is a right. In our society, there must be neither excluded nor left behind. "The RMI (now RSA), the candidate's major promise, is there. Finally, it's not very original, but François Mitterrand makes wishes" so that we love each other a little more [in France] and let us feel a little better our reasons for being united when our future is at stake ”. “United France”, that will be his campaign slogan.
December 31, 2001: Jacques Chirac
Fourteen years later, Jacques Chirac also began to talk about the cohesion of the country.
In 2001, he was, like François Mitterrand in 1987, a president of cohabitation.
Jacques Chirac is even in his fifth wishes without assuming the bulk of power, in the hands of the plural left government of Lionel Jospin.
"The cohesion of our nation requires the affirmation of a great collective adventure", proclaims the outgoing president.
Two months later, his campaign slogan will be “La France en grand, la France ensemble”.
Most of his wishes are first taken up by the news: France will switch to the euro in a few hours - yes, it's been twenty years.
Jacques Chirac will not approach the next campaign directly but sows some elements.
For the euro to "keep its promises (...) major reforms to modernize society, the economy and the state will have to be undertaken".
And then, on two occasions, the almost candidate president will address the question of "the authority of the State" and "the republican order", which is "threatened when insecurity increases".
Word is out: that will be the main theme of the upcoming electoral campaign.
December 31, 2011: Nicolas Sarkozy
The last wishes of Nicolas Sarkozy's mandate, for 2012, are dominated by the consequences of the financial and economic crisis of… 2008. And he warns: “The crisis is not over. "Like François Mitterrand in 1987, the outgoing head of state speaks clearly of the upcoming presidential election, but to say that he will assume his functions as long as possible: in short, that he will enter the campaign as late as possible. possible. But Nicolas Sarkozy's position is more like that of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing thirty years earlier: a president who is not in a situation of cohabitation but is facing an economic crisis.
And, much more than VGE, Sarkozy dramatizes the “crucial” stakes of the year to come.
“The crisis is serious, the circumstances exceptional.
"And to continue:" The year 2012 will be one of all the risks but also of all the possibilities.
The year of all dangers if we stand still, deferring the choices is the worst option.
The outgoing president cheek "it's me or chaos".
Valéry Giscard-d'Estaing and Nicolas Sarkozy are also the only ones to announce a difficult new year.
Coincidentally or not, neither was re-elected.
Can Emmanuel Macron really draw any conclusion from this?
Difficult to announce a bright future in the middle of the sixth pandemic wave.
Health
Prefects and elected officials asked by Gérald Darmanin to cancel their 2022 vows ceremonies
Politics
On TF1, an Emmanuel Macron without regrets draws his campaign a little more
Jacques Chirac
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Presidential election 2022
Emmanuel Macron
Wishes
Nicolas sarkozy
François Mitterrand
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