8:00 a.m.
, May 31, 2020
Hello Hervé Gattegno. A curious episode marked the political week, it is the telephone call passed by Emmanuel Macron to the humorist Jean-Marie Bigard and all the reactions he provoked. What’s your opinion: a president who calls a comedian, is it shocking?
I don’t find it shocking at all. No more than Giscard with Mireille Mathieu or Mitterrand with Elisabeth Teissier, and rather less than François Hollande with Edwy Plenel (who is as funny as Bigard) or Nicolas Sarkozy taking the same Bigard on a visit to the Pope… A President of the Republic has the right to speak with whomever he wants – he exchanges with economists, intellectuals, trade unionists, most of the time without anyone knowing. What annoys me, precisely, is the feeling that by witnessing this exchange, we French, we are trying to deceive ourselves. Because in reality, we know that this call, Emmanuel Macron passed it so that we know it. And for a debate to begin: is it very reasonable, the President of the Republic speaking of the reopening of cafes with someone like Bigard – ah yes, but that’s because he wants to make people; but after all, are we going to blame the President of the Republic for talking to the people, etc. Suddenly, we hide the real question: in the name of what do we postulate that Jean-Marie Bigard would represent the people? It seems very questionable to me.
Read also – SURVEY. The popularity of Emmanuel Macron drops by 3 points, that of Edouard Philippe goes up by 2 points
Since this conversation, Jean-Marie Bigard has presented himself as the voice of the people, in particular by invoking his video where he criticized the government and which has been viewed 8 million times on YouTube. If I follow you, is it as much a strategy on his part as that of Emmanuel Macron?
Obviously, there is a presidential calculation. Yes, I believe that Emmanuel Macron is not unhappy to take against those who see him as the representative of France from above – let’s say that he is slammed. However, I am not sure that we must follow to the end the analysts who explain that he wants to divide the populist camp by giving credit to Bigard – especially since the same explained there is no so long that Emmanuel Macron seeks to favor the extreme right to find himself facing Marine Le Pen in 2022, so we get lost a little. One can especially think that by legitimizing an interlocutor like Bigard, Emmanuel Macron does not contribute so much to divide the populists as to amplify their audience, and that, I believe that that does not benefit anyone.
We still heard this week the little music of a possible candidacy of Jean-Marie Bigard in the presidential election, in reference to the Coluche episode in 1981. That either, it would not seem shocking to you?
The candidacy is his business. In a democracy, everyone can present themselves – and in Italy or in Ukraine, we already have entertainers who have come to power. In France, it is still necessary to collect the 500 signatures of elected officials, it is not won in advance. Especially if we remember the revisionist positions taken by Jean-Marie Bigard on the attacks of September 11… And then he appeared on a list in Paris in the first round of the municipal elections, he collected 50 votes – it shows that he has less weight in the ballot boxes than on social networks, a bit like the yellow vests. Now, I find the comparison with Coluche excessive. Coluche was overtaken by what he had thrown and ended up withdrawing so as not to risk causing the left to beat. Bigard, he seems rather overwhelmed by his ego. When he gives his opinion on chloroquine and on health measures, it leaves you quite dumbfounded. And he surrounds all this with obscenities – he must think that that makes him a spokesperson for the French, this is his vision. I believe that if, by phoning him, Emmanuel Macron thought of speaking to the people, he got the wrong number.
–
