• This Wednesday, Elisabeth Borne will deliver her general policy statement before the National Assembly.

  • Both in substance and in form, the stakes are high for the Prime Minister.

  • The fact of being a woman and confronting very masculine guns is undoubtedly also a disadvantage.

It is an exercise that has lost some of its luster: the declaration – more commonly known as the government's general policy speech, traditionally delivered by the Prime Minister before the Assembly shortly after taking office.

Especially since the legislative elections had become a confirmation of the presidential election, i.e. since 2002. In 2017, Edouard Philippe's speech had even been partly overshadowed by that of Emmanuel Macron, delivered before Congress (Assembly and Senate combined)... the day before.

This general policy speech therefore does not have the importance of an investiture – it is not one – and this passage is not obligatory.

And if Elisabeth Borne will lend herself well to this test this Wednesday, she will not even ask for the confidence of the deputies.

Yes, but for the first time in thirty years, a woman will deliver such a speech in front of an Assembly that is mostly hostile to her.

What to give a little interest to the event.

Elisabeth Borne will certainly not play her head, but “we have more to lose than to gain in the discourse of general policy, believes Michaël Moreau, journalist and author of

Les Plumes du Pouvoir *.

The challenge is to establish its authority, its vision, to chart a course”.

An issue that is all the more key in this uncertain context of a fragmented Assembly without an obvious majority.

Will the Prime Minister choose to be purely in line with the presidential programme, or will she show signs of openness?

This will be an important indicator.

A common thread, not an enumeration

Elisabeth Borne may have been in all governments for five years, but she remains little known.

This speech, just like a first major interview, for example, will be a business card, the sketch of a political self-portrait, via the topics discussed and the choices made.

This was the case for its predecessor.

“We must avoid enumerations, have a common thread, continues Michaël Moreau.

Jean Castex, his red thread, was on the territories.

We must give priorities and take the side of not mentioning all the subjects, even if it means cringing a few teeth.

»

Print a political mark, therefore.

From there to clash and think big, like Jacques Chaban-Delmas and his very global concept of "New society", in 1969?

Attention danger: “You have to imprint your mark without stepping on the flowerbeds of the one who is above”, aka the tenant of the Elysée.

Still in 1969, with his program seen as very progressive for the time, and especially for his conservative majority, Jacques Chaban-Delmas got into trouble, from the start of his term, with the president who had appointed him, Georges Pompidou.

Let's rather bet that this year's speech will be one of those – not all of them have been – written in close collaboration with the presidency.

“She will have to take people with her”

The form will undoubtedly be just as important as the content.

And that's normal, we're not studying the text, we're in a Parliament.

And so we… “parliament”.

“A good speech is a speech that combines three things: pathos, the ability to move people;

the logos, the ability to present a logical argument;

and ethos, the ability to make the public say that the interlocutor inspires confidence, ”describes Dominik Abbas, the winner of the 2021 major international eloquence competition at the Sorbonne.

For him, there are two key moments: the very beginning, which sets the tone, and the end, which leaves a final image.

Getting an emotion across… The stakes are of prime importance for a Prime Minister whose profile is less political than technical.

“She might tend to give a very technocratic presentation, almost a Powerpoint of her politics.

It will have to respond to fears, to anxieties, to regain confidence, to take people with it, otherwise it will just be disembodied discourse”, continues Dominik Abbas.

Elisabeth Borne is certainly used to the Palais Bourbon, the cauldron it can sometimes become.

But she has also been mocked several times for speaking out in a very monotonous, mechanical tone, as during legislative election evenings.

We will have to do better to capture the attention of parliamentarians – and beyond – for an hour.

A bit of masculinity, but not too much

As such, Elisabeth Borne leaves with an additional disadvantage: she is a woman.

Not that here, we think that a woman is less capable than a man of making this type of speech.

But the canons of a good speech are, until now in any case, engraved in a particularly testosterone marble.

Literally, if only about the voice: "Women who have too high a voice pass for women who have no voice, they are not legitimate", notes the actress Martine Guillaud, coach in speaking.

The Prime Minister is not in this category, but it is not the pitfall that paves the way for women in power.

Valérie Pécresse, the former LR presidential candidate, paid to find out.

In February, she completely missed the meeting at the Zenith, which was to be the turning point of her campaign.

Blame it on a speech delivered as if she were singing out of tune.

“She screwed up because she wanted to change her posture, inject a little masculinity into it, believes Martine Guillaud.

You have to know what you give to see, and see where you are good, know your strengths.

Women politicians are actually faced with a double contradictory requirement: to look manly to be heard, but not too manly to maintain "the closeness, which appeals to women politicians".

This is not the simplest of equations that Elisabeth Borne will have to solve this Wednesday at the Palais Bourbon.

* “The feathers of power”, by Michael Moreau, ed.

Plan, 2020.

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Policy

Borne Government: The Prime Minister will deliver her general policy statement on Wednesday

  • Elisabeth Borne

  • National Assembly

  • Government

  • Speech