Macron on all fronts, Bayrou becalmed: a two-speed week for the executive

On Saturday with Volodymyr Zelensky playing peace in Ukraine , on Tuesday answering questions from YouTuber Tibo InShape: Emmanuel Macron is multiplying himself, even if it means trying all the big differences. He distinguished himself in the maneuver on Saturday in Kiev, during a joint trip with the German leader Friedrich Merz, the British leader Keir Starmer and the Polish leader Donald Tusk, pleading for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.

After eight years of activity on the international stage, and alongside less experienced leaders, the French head of state also skillfully managed the individual staging: a one-on-one dinner with Volodomyr Zelensky and a striking photo of the leaders debriefing with Donald Trump around the Frenchman's speakerphone.

Political gains that Emmanuel Macron hopes to capitalize on at home, after reaching personal records of unpopularity last fall, in the wake of a failed dissolution. "It's not a comeback" in the polls, "and he can't afford to stay on his Aventine Hill," judges one minister. The same minister, noting the president's renewed appetite for the smallest details of domestic political life, adds: "You can't change your nature."

On Monday morning, he is scheduled to travel to Wissous (Essonne) for the inauguration of a "laboratory of excellence" of the Franco-Italian company EssilorLuxottica, a world leader in optics. The trip is part of the annual Choose France event on the country's economic attractiveness, which Emmanuel Macron initiated and will chair on May 19.

And while he is due to be on the ground on Wednesday as part of the commemorations of the attack on the Incarville toll booth which cost the lives of two prison officers, attention is focused on his two-hour special broadcast, entitled "The Challenges of France", on Tuesday evening on TF1.

He will debate with the general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, and the mayor of Béziers, Robert Ménard, and will answer questions from French people, as well as those from YouTuber Tibo InShape and journalist Charles Biétry, who suffers from Charcot's disease.

This is an opportunity to defend his record, but also to outline "prospects, as there are two years left in his term," his entourage asserts. "He has this determination to work until the last day of his five-year term," adds a senior minister.

On the agenda are possible referendums, while Emmanuel Macron indicated in his New Year's greetings for 2025 that the French would be asked to "decide" on key issues. The range of topics that the head of state could submit for consultation is broad, from screen use among young people to territorial organization, with the right-wing pushing ardently to put immigration on the table.

A relationship of ups and downs

François Bayrou, for his part, proposed polling citizens on the future trajectory of public finances, with three out of five French people in favor of it, according to an Elabe poll on Sunday. "It's one of the most important issues facing the nation today. I don't believe the political class will address it spontaneously," he argued, thus deferring to "the people of the citizens."

François Bayrou's suggestion received a lukewarm reception from Emmanuel Macron's entourage, who pointed out that the referendum remains a presidential prerogative. A sign of the freshness of a relationship at the top of the executive branch, one filled with "ups and downs," according to a close friend of the Prime Minister.

It's difficult not to watch Emmanuel Macron's two-hour broadcast in light of what awaits François Bayrou the following day: his hearing by an Assembly commission of inquiry into violence in schools . In the background, the Betharram affair is sticking to his fingers like Captain Haddock's sticking plaster, since he will have to defend himself against his knowledge of sexual and physical violence in this establishment in the heart of his stronghold in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.