Macron in campaign mode as election looms

Paris, Dec 15 (AFP/APP):French President Emmanuel Macron is yet to declare he will run for a second term in next year’s election, but his intentions are no longer in doubt and his unofficial campaigning is drawing fire.

After a rare two-hour press conference last week to outline his European ambitions, the 43-year-old head of state is to sit down for a long prime-time TV interview on domestic policy on Wednesday evening.

For a leader who has always kept the media at arm’s length and once theorised his role as acting like Jupiter, the Roman god of the sky, the sudden burst of transparency has not gone unnoticed.

Neither have a string of visits to small-town and rural France where he has wandered through picturesque cobbled streets, stopping to chat to shopkeepers or drinking wine in local cafes.

When asked again by a reporter last week whether he would seek re-election, he initially employed humour, saying the question was “a sign of affection, a hidden desire, almost an appeal”.

“In the time we are living through, the most important thing is that our institutions continue to function in the most stable way possible,” he continued, evading the question.

Like his predecessors including Francois Mitterrand and Nicolas Sarkozy, Macron appears intent on playing for time, using the presidential megaphone and the benefits of his office until as late as possible.

France’s role holding the rotating presidency of the European Union from January 1, which will see Macron set the official EU agenda, is also another factor favouring a late declaration.

“Emmanuel Macron is president of the republic, elected for five years, not four and a half,” one of Macron’s closest allies, top ruling party MP Christophe Castaner, told television channel France 2 on Tuesday.

“That the president is thinking is normal, that he’s contemplating things is normal, but in the meantime he’s president of the republic,” he added.

For government spokesman Gabriel Attal, “not campaigning is more of a disadvantage than an advantage for us because the reality is that it gives us less opportunity to respond to criticism.”