Monday January 24, late afternoon. The debates drag on on the theme of medical deserts and the shortage of caregivers, during a round table in Bourganeuf, a village of 2,700 inhabitants located in Creuse. Doctors, nurses, local elected officials… all are vying for the microphone to give their opinion on how to remedy this. Behind his mask, Emmanuel Macron listens and speaks little. He leaves it to the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, to respond on the merits of the subject. Contrary to his habit, the Head of State does not seem passionate about the exchanges.
The next day, the same scene in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, in Haute-Vienne. During a speech by the Minister of Territorial Cohesion, Jacqueline Gourault, on the question of the presence of public services in rural areas, the tenant of the Elysée Palace fixes the ceiling for more than a minute. As if he was in his bubble, thinking about something else. Alone with people around. “At the moment, the president is elsewhere”, observes a minister who knows him well. Absences attributed to the multitude of subjects that accumulate on his shoulders, two and a half months before the presidential election.
Threat of war in Ukraine, destabilization of several African countries, soaring energy prices, claims on purchasing power, persistence of the Covid-19 epidemic – with an increase in cases of the Omicron variant, which are sowing mess in the schools… Not to mention the controversy over the mistreatment of the elderly in retirement homes, following the Orpea scandal. Over the past ten days, a series of hot files have piled up on Emmanuel Macron’s desk, causing him to scramble on all fronts.
Enough to make anyone dizzy who has to manage these different subjects with his triple hat of President of the Republic, current President of the European Union (EU) and pre-candidate for the presidency.
Presiding until the “last quarter of an hour”
On Wednesday February 2, Mr. Macron will also put on these three hats in a single day, during a trip marked by three stages. He will first go to Liévin, in Pas-de-Calais, to look into the future of the mining area; he will then go to the Louvre-Lens museum in the company of the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, where he will discuss with middle and high school students; before going to Tourcoing, in the North, for the informal meeting of European interior ministers as part of the French presidency of the EU, during which he must defend the migration pact and the reform of the Schengen area .
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