It is an inevitable tradition. Every year, the President of the French Republic presents his wishes. First to the French, on the evening of December 31, then to different groups, state bodies, and the press, throughout the month of January.
Emmanuel Macron has planned a different scenario, but his choices are limited.
In 2016, François Hollande had delivered nine greetings during the month of January: for the military, youth, the press, etc. Heads of State also usually send greetings to diplomats, to the Constitutional Council, and to the various religious authorities.
But in 2018, presidential vows are going to be condensed into the first week of January. “Emmanuel Macron wants to reduce the number of wishes, consolidate and simplify, without neglecting anyone. It is necessary to avoid that the president spends a month to make speeches,” Christophe Castaner, general delegate of La Republique en marche, told French daily Le Monde.
Will he be able to send all these wishes before he leaves for China on January 8? The Elysée has not yet confirmed a calender. Only the ceremony of the vows with the press was officially fixed, on January 3rd.
However, Macron will not depart from the ritual of presidential vows on New Year’s Eve. “It is a very ritualized exercise, it is almost obliged to accept this appointment”, observes Alexis Lévrier, historian of the media and author. “This is a message sent directly to all French people, which should interest him since he said he wants to reinvent the presidential office.”
Moreover, presidential vows and their wide dissemination in the media and on social networks offer a significant “sounding board” to the Head of State, as pointed out in 2016 by Jean-Marc Leblanc, lecturer in language sciences Paris-Est Créteil University interviewed by BFMTV.
How is Macron going to “renew” these highly codified wishes? Could he pronounce them in a different setting than the traditional Elysee Palace, at a place “a very close to the president”?
“The two television interviews he gave to French media took place at the Elysée. Macron appreciates this framework, always in the optics to respect the sacredness of the function and to reconnect with a form of republican monarchy,” Lévrier told Europe1.
Every year, some 10 million French people watch the president’s wishes on television.