Jacques Serais, edited by Gauthier Delomez 06:00, April 15, 2022

Emmanuel Macron is going to Notre-Dame de Paris this Friday afternoon, three years to the day after the fire which partly ravaged the cathedral, to take stock of the progress of the restoration site.

The opportunity for the president-candidate to address the Catholic electorate, which did not support him as much in the first round of the presidential election.

ANALYSIS

It is the president and not the candidate who is about to enter Friday afternoon in the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral under construction.

Emmanuel Macron goes to the Parisian building three years to the day after the fire which partly ravaged the building.

He will take stock of the progress of the restoration project, and will discuss with the companions and companies who put their know-how at the service of the reconstruction of the cathedral.

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This is a symbolic visit, right in the middle of the interval between the two towers and on the eve of the Easter weekend.

It is the services of the Elysée, and not its campaign team, which organizes this visit.

But nine days before the second round, Emmanuel Macron's two costumes seem inseparable, as this trip is loaded with symbols.

A Catholic electorate that voted less for candidate Macron

This is a very clear signal sent to the Catholic electorate on Good Friday, on the eve of the Easter weekend.

It must be said that the Catholic vote is far from leaving Macronie indifferent.

An Ifop survey for the newspaper

La Croix

indicates that regular practitioners voted slightly less for the outgoing president than the national average: 25% instead of the nearly 28% granted to Emmanuel Macron on the evening of the first round.

On the other hand, 16% of them slipped in an Éric Zemmour bulletin.

A much higher proportion than the national average (7%).

Some of these voters are therefore today without a candidate.

And they are not especially prone to vote Marine Le Pen because Catholics who go to mass regularly voted less for the RN candidate than the average French person.

By making this wink, Emmanuel Macron may hope to convince them not to abstain.