How Emmanuel Macron seeks to build an "image of proximity" on the ground

The land, the land, the land.

This is President-candidate Emmanuel Macron's new mantra for the next two weeks before the verdict of the presidential election on Sunday, April 24.

The day after the results of the first round, he went to the North, to meet the voters of the mining basin of Hauts-de-France who voted mainly for his competitor, Marine Le Pen.

His electoral route to Compostela also crosses, Thursday, April 14, Le Havre, on the lands of his former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, after passing through the Grand Est region.

Emmanuel Macron then goes to the South, where he will hold his main big meeting of the between-two-rounds in Marseille, Saturday April 16.

Electoral fidget

Main, because it now seems certain that he will not be satisfied with a single high mass in public before the second round as had been planned at the start of the campaign.

Emmanuel Macron should do "two or even three", understands Le Parisien.

A desire for a meeting which can be understood given that opposite, Marine Le Pen has announced two major meetings: the first in Avignon on April 14 and the second in Arras seven days later. 

Emmanuel Macron has also not yet revealed his program for the second week, which could allow him to display even more kilometers on his campaign counter.

This electoral fidget is the opposite of the 2017 between-two-rounds. At the time, his campaign staff had theorized the "principle of the overhead campaign (few trips) in order to 'presidentialize' Emmanuel Macron" , recalls Paris Match.

A strategy that had almost cost him dearly.

Marine Le Pen had started by reducing her gap in the polls by going to shake as many hands as possible on the ground, while Emmanuel Macron appeared to be the one who celebrated his first place at La Rotonde at the end of the first round. 

No question of making the same mistake again, especially since the president-candidate has already remained in the background during the first round of this presidential election.

It is high time "to occupy the field, including in the media, in order to build this image of proximity to people", notes Pierre-Emmanuel Guigo, historian at the University of Paris-Est Créteil and specialist in political communication. , contacted by France 24. 

This is all the more important since Emmanuel Macron no longer appears to be the newcomer to the election, and since these five years of exercise of power have left a part of the electorate with an aftertaste of president. arrogant and who can look down on the French, recalls the historian.

Displacements more obvious than in 2017

The electoral situation is "also much less comfortable for Emmanuel Macron than five years ago", underlines Pierre-Emmanuel Guigo.

The dike of the Republican front seems less hermetic, while Marine Le Pen has a reserve of natural voices – those of Éric Zemmour – which did not exist in 2017.

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Beating the ground is also essential for the outgoing president because it will be much less easy to dominate his opponent during the debate between the two rounds.

"In 2017, he also traveled less to prepare for the debate, which paid off. This time, Marie Le Pen will have learned from her mistakes," said Pierre-Emmanuel Guigo.

The far-right candidate also has a less busy travel schedule than five years ago in order to be ready for the face-to-face.

Its big meeting between the two rounds is also scheduled for the day after the exercise.

In a sense, the strategies seem to have reversed.

Finally, the electoral map of the first round seems more readable than in 2017, "which makes it easier to determine the places to be favored to try to convince", notes the historian.

There are only three candidates who have exceeded 10% in the first round, which allows Emmanuel Macron to focus on the regions where the third man - that is to say Jean-Luc Mélenchon - has made a good score.

And he does not hesitate, since he goes where the unsuccessful candidate of La France insoumise came first – in Strasbourg and Mulhouse, in the Grand Est region – and will hold his meeting in the electoral stronghold of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is a deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône.

Even his trip to Normandy has accents of voice fishing on the left, since Jean-Luc Mélenchon came first in Le Havre.

Still, it is not just a major operation to seduce the electorate of La France insoumise.

These are above all appointments in politically unknown territory.

"He especially chose places where he did not arrive first, even constituencies which are the most hostile to him", summarizes Pierre-Emmanuel Guigo.

It is no coincidence that Emmanuel Macron started with the North where Marine Le Pen is strongest, before touring the Mélenchonist strongholds.

The message is, once again, "to show that he is open to dialogue, capable of listening to opinions very different from his own. It is always with a view to blurring this image of the president who does not listen to the people", assures Pierre-Emmanuel Guigo. 

Pay attention to small sentences

An attitude that contrasts with the strategy adopted by Marine Le Pen, which favors travel to cities where she has already achieved a good score, such as Avignon.

The ups and downs of the campaign further reinforce this discrepancy.

Emmanuel Macron may have been taken to task several times during his travels, he never appeared to be in the refusal of the discussion.

Nothing to do with the images of the environmental activist dragged out of the Paris room where the far-right candidate had organized a press conference on Wednesday.

But this strategy of going after the Melenchonist or abstentionist voter with the teeth, as ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy would say, who supported Emmanuel Macron, is not without risk. 

First, "if Emmanuel Macron is rather good in improvised dialogue, he can sometimes drop small sentences which can serve him", recalls Pierre-Emmanuel Guigo.

The "but are you crazy or what" launched by Emmanuel Macron to a Frenchman who accused him of having "killed the hospital" during his trip to Alsace began to make the rounds of the media. 

Then, he must not forget his first-round voters.

By talking too much to Mélenchonists or far-right voters, he risks giving the impression of taking these first-round votes for granted "while there is always the risk of abstention", underlines Pierre-Emmanuel Guigo.

This is one of the reasons for his detour to Le Havre, to remember the good memories of his ex-Prime Minister who remains very popular among the electorate of LREM.

And there is also talk of a homecoming in Amiens, the city where Emmanuel Macron comes from.

But this priority on the ground has, for the moment, made a victim: digital.

"There is no notable initiative on social networks, even though it is still the preferred medium for young people who, in part, abstained and could be convinced", is surprised the historian.

It's an in-between tower that smacks of the countryside of yesteryear.

But maybe Emmanuel Macron, when he has worn out his shoes too much, will still invite himself to one or the other youtubeur, as he had already done in May 2021 with McFly and Carlito, two French-speaking stars of the online video platform.

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