Refocus to become essential.

President-candidate Emmanuel Macron returned, on Saturday April 2, with the famous "at the same time" which had made his success in 2017. Nicknamed since the start of his five-year term "president of the rich" by his opponents, the head of the State seemed to assume, during this presidential campaign of 2022, to have become a right-wing candidate, with in particular two politically marked flagship proposals: retirement at 65 and the Active Solidarity Income (RSA) conditional on 15-20 working hours.

His speech at La Défense Arena in front of more than 30,000 people, according to the organizers, focused on social issues, education and health, was intended to demonstrate the opposite.

"In 2017, we had a project of emancipation, of fighting against house arrest. Despite the crises, we never gave up. We kept our promises", he launched in the introduction of a long satisfaction with his action for five years, aimed at emphasizing that he had also carried out left-wing measures.

A statement shared by his supporters who came from all over France to attend this unique major campaign meeting.

"Emmanuel Macron has successfully synthesized progressive economic and societal ideas and that's what attracted me to him in 2017," says Aurore, 34, manager of a driving school in Poitiers and former LGBT activist.

"Between the Yellow Vests crisis, the Covid-19 and now the war in Ukraine, he still had to manage a very complicated five-year term, but he knew how to help companies during the health crisis and applied the 'at the same time "The PMA, the end of the housing tax, women's rights as a great cause of the five-year term, non-punitive ecology, that's not nothing. He embodied progress in 2017 and he still embodies it. "

Aurore, 34, was seduced by @EmmanuelMacron in 2017 because of his "synthesis of progressive economic and societal ideas" pic.twitter.com/gwTU8qMRrP

— Romain Brunet (@romain2dc) April 2, 2022

"I joined Emmanuel Macron in 2017 when I was only 13," says Tom, now 18 and a member of "JAM" (Youth with Macron), from Nancy, where he studied. in political science.

"I saw in him the hope of overcoming the left-right divide with a project bringing together personalities from different backgrounds. It's true that he tended to move to the right, but we mustn't forget the PMA, free contraception for young women, the duplication of classes."

Tom, 18, is going to vote for the first time.

It will be @EmmanuelMacron because "he overrode the left-right divide".

pic.twitter.com/kFG8D4F6VK

— Romain Brunet (@romain2dc) April 2, 2022

The end of the right-left divide wanted by Emmanuel Macron was symbolized in the first rows of the stands by the presence of two former heads of government seated side by side: Manuel Valls, Prime Minister of François Hollande, and Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Prime Minister by Jacques Chirac.

There was also a little further Jean-Pierre Chevènement sitting near Christian Estrosi, but also Édouard Philippe and the government as a whole.

Catch-up session with teachers

The president-candidate has repeatedly hammered "we did it" about the big and small reforms carried out during his five-year term, but the objective seemed to be to strengthen his left leg.

"The social elevator is still too broken", he regretted, before promising a "revolution" in education thanks to "our teachers, to whom we owe so much" - and who had voted massively for him in 2017. "When we reopened the schools in May 2020, I know what we asked them. I personally want to thank them", assured the Head of State.

"You can applaud them!", Launched Emmanuel Macron to the crowd, when he had shocked many teachers, the day of the presentation of his program to the press, March 17, by accusing some of them of to have "disappeared" in nature at the time of the first confinement.

Same catch-up session vis-à-vis health personnel when discussing their commitment throughout the health crisis and the progress of Ségur de la santé, particularly in terms of remuneration.

"No doubt, we have done well, but we cannot fail to face the exhaustion of so many caregivers and I have a thought for them", declared Emmanuel Macron, before, again, calling the audience to applaud them loudly.

The president of "pragmatism" and "political overcoming"

However, the President of the Republic has not denied his two proposals on retirement at 65 and the conditioned RSA.

"To finance all this, there will be no tax increase, there will be no increase in our debt, we will do it by working more, by producing. There is no social state, welfare state if there is no strong productive state," he said.

A position that appeals to Christelle, 40, a civil servant living in Levallois, in the Paris suburbs.

"You have to be pragmatic. That's what interests me about him, he knows how to adapt to realities. On the RSA, his message is to say that politics can't do everything, that people are responsible for their choices and that everyone must take responsibility for themselves. It is not shocking to ask for something in return for an allowance. When you have been away from work for a long time, some are psychologically injured and no longer have the strength to leave the house. them. In these cases, a little help in the form of an obligation to give of one's time can do some good."

Christelle, 40, validates @EmmanuelMacron's proposal on a conditioned RSA: "An obligation to give your time can do good" pic.twitter.com/PbnKSCZZjv

— Romain Brunet (@romain2dc) April 2, 2022

A little further in the stands, Mathieu, a 52-year-old business manager, came from Vanves, also in the Paris suburbs, to attend his first political meeting.

Former voter of Nicolas Sarkozy, he shares the same observation on the "pragmatism" of Emmanuel Macron on the subject of pensions.

"His approach is not too politicized and that's what we need. Major issues like retirement are neither right nor left: it's a structural problem, we don't have the means to avoid it. not reform. And for that, you have to be pragmatic and agree to work longer."

Mathieu, 52, salutes the "pragmatism" of @EmmanuelMacron on pensions pic.twitter.com/EQYlY9d1gN

— Romain Brunet (@romain2dc) April 2, 2022

Aware that his success depends in part on his ability to bring together voters from left and right, Emmanuel Macron praised at the end of the meeting, after 2:15 a.m. of speech, the "political excess" and called "all those of the social democracy to Gaullism, passing through the ecologists who have not yet joined us, to do so".

Faced with the progress in the polls of the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, but also with the dynamic Jean-Luc Mélenchon on his left, Emmanuel Macron finally tried to reintroduce the "progressive vs. nationalist" divide in order to represent the only useful vote for still hesitant left-wing voters.

"It's the fight for progress against withdrawal, the fight for patriotism and Europe against nationalism. April's choices are simple, basically."

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