In the Grand Est, Macron defends his five-year term and tries to convince voters

Another busy campaign day for Emmanuel Macron. After the North on Monday, the president-candidate is in the East on Tuesday. On the program: walkabout in the morning in Mulhouse, and meeting with caregivers, then direction Châtenois on the theme of safety. The president was confronted with the results of his five-year term. He was particularly taken to task by caregivers. “The beds are closing”, opposes a caregiver. “But why, because we are short of staff,” he says, trying to defend his record. “Why are we understaffed?” she continues. “Young people do not want to work for a salary that is not decent,” she insists to the current tenant of the Elysée.

His interlocutors are not convinced, but the president insists: “We reinvested as the nation had never invested in the hospital.” Emmanuel Macron wants to get the votes of these voters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “The social minima have fallen. You have hunted down the unemployed, unemployed people have been deregistered”, asserts one of them. “It’s wrong. What you say is not factually correct”, opposes Emmanuel Macron.

Tackles against Le Pen

A few minutes later, facing journalists, he directly attacks his rival in the second round of the presidential election. “I don’t forget what Madame Le Pen also said constantly during the Covid crisis. She was going to treat people with chloroquine, she was going to vaccinate massively with a Russian vaccine which even the World Health Organization has declared that ‘He was not effective,’ tackles the president. “You shouldn’t just follow the wind and be demagoguery. It can work when there is no pressure. During crises, it can be fatal,” he says.

Directed remarks about health, but also about Europe. “Madame Le Pen is telling nonsense as usual. She explains that she will not pay the club’s bill, that she will change the rules, but that she will change the rules on her own”, is surprised. -he. “It means she wants out, but she doesn’t dare to say it anymore. It’s never good.” To better support his point, Emmanuel Macron is Tuesday evening in the city center of Strasbourg, not far from the seat of the European Parliament.

A mixed reception in Mulhouse

The president is in favorable territory, since he came first in the first round in Alsace, and he does not hesitate to contact the inhabitants. However, does he manage to convince the refractory? Most of the time, yes, but it depends where. In Mulhouse, this Tuesday morning, where Emmanuel Macron did not come out on top in the first round, the reception was mixed. This caregiver, for example, voted Éric Zemmour. But after a quarter of an hour of discussions with the president on the state of the hospital, he admits to being a little disconcerted. “It’s true, he managed to put a little doubt”, concedes the Mulhousien. “There were sincere handshakes. Everything he said to me, if he implements it, I will say to him: ‘Mr Macron, you were right’. But he has to prove it .”

Many voters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on the other hand, were not seduced and did not say they were fooled by Emmanuel Macron’s promise to soften his pension reform. According to a resident, a left-wing voter, it’s “because he wants to have Mélenchon voters in his pocket, that’s all”, before adding that for “some, it will work, but I think that for a lot of it won’t work. Me, it won’t work.”

Popular rural trips

Another atmosphere Tuesday afternoon in Châtenois, a small town of 4,000 inhabitants which largely voted Emmanuel Macron. Here, almost everyone is convinced, “by his attitude, by his gestures, by his kindness”, details a resident. “I think that indeed, the fact that he travels everywhere, and not only in metropolises, but also in small rural areas, that can convince citizens to vote for him and to follow him”, explains another Castinétain .

We will now have to convince the people of Strasbourg. It will undoubtedly be more complicated, since the Alsatian capital voted Jean-Luc Mélenchon by majority last Sunday.