storyLike Emmanuel Macron, whom he has just joined, Jean-Pierre Chevènement already dreamed, in 2002, of “turbulent the system” by bringing together “republicans from both shores”. Today, the co-founder of the PS sees his ideas carried by politicians, journalists and intellectuals who supported him at the time.
On February 10, the President of the Republic is passing through Belfort. He visits the factory of GE Steam Power System, which manufactures turbines for nuclear power plants. He comes to get rid of a ball and chain he has been dragging for seven years. At the time, the French group Alstom had sold the factory to the Americans of General Electric. Emmanuel Macron, Minister of the Economy, had validated the sale. Since then, he has been accused of having sold off France’s energy sovereignty.
Today, he comes to announce that the turbines become French again, the Americans having decided to resell the factory to EDF. He comes above all to convince that he was not responsible for the sale by Alstom, since it would have been concluded before he became minister. This is the objective of the exchange organized with a group of employees, in front of the cameras.
Macron invited to this factory visit a man who came to see him at the time in Bercy, and who can confirm. He hands her the microphone: “Jean-Pierre, do you want to say a few words to these ladies and gentlemen?” » Jean-Pierre is willing : “Sometimes you get a rather unfair trial. » He favors formality. A question of character, and of generation.
Jean-Pierre Chevènement at 82 years. He comes to offer his support as a former deputy and mayor of Belfort, but also as a historical figure of the left, a respectable sovereigntist. The employees are convinced, the journalists have the images they need. For the president, it is now time for the speech. It is about “energy sovereignty” here, from “industrial sovereignty” over there. It looks like the Chevènement of the great era, the one who was several times minister of François Mitterrand. The person concerned is seated in the first row. Macron makes him applaud. It was two weeks before Jean-Pierre Chevènement called, on February 27, to vote for him in an interview at the Sunday newspaper.
For a long time, it was better not to claim him. Since a certain April 21, 2002, first round of another presidential election, during which, by wanting to unite sovereignists of left and right, he had obtained barely more than 5%. The candidate of the PS, Lionel Jospin, was narrowly preceded by that of the FN, Jean-Marie Le Pen. The left eliminated in the first round, the extreme right present in the second: probable today, unimaginable at the time.
On the left, Chevènement becomes the one who stole votes from Jospin and caused the defeat. His right-wing supporters think he hasn’t gone far enough. Among those who voted for him, a certain Eric Zemmour. “I wish your line was the right one because I follow it, I approve of it and I am a child of it”, he explains to Chevènement in 2020, when he receives him on his CNews talk show. The Chevènement generation had disappeared, here it is today at the heart of a new presidential election.
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