Macron tries to fly over presidential campaign ·Global Voices

Lundi 24 janvier, en fin d’après-midi. Les débats s’éternisent sur le thème des déserts médicaux et de la pénurie de soignants, lors d’une table ronde à Bourganeuf, un village de 2 700 habitants situé dans la Creuse. Médecins, infirmiers, élus locaux… Tous se disputent le micro pour donner leur avis sur la manière d’y remédier. Derrière son masque, Emmanuel Macron écoute et s’exprime peu. Il laisse le soin au ministre de la santé, Olivier Véran, de répondre sur le fond du sujet. Contrairement à son habitude, le chef de l’Etat ne semble pas passionné par les échanges.

The next day, same scene in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, Haute-Vienne. During a speech by the Minister of territorial Cohesion, Jacqueline Gourault, on the issue of the presence of public services in rural areas, the tenant of the Elysée sets the ceiling for more than one minute. Like he's in his bubble, thinking about something else. Alone with people around. "at the moment, the President is elsewhere," says a Minister who knows him well. Absences attributed to the multitude of subjects accumulating on his shoulders, two and a half months before the presidential election.

Threat of war in Ukraine, destabilization of several African countries, soaring energy prices, demands on purchasing power, persistence of the Covid-19 epidemic, with a multiplication of cases of Omicron variant that sows a mess in schools …. Not to mention the controversy over the abuse of older people in retirement homes, following the Orpea scandal. Over the past ten days, a series of hot files have piled up on Emmanuel Macron's desk, leading him to struggle on all fronts.

This is enough to give a twist to those who have to deal with these various issues with his triple hat as President of the Republic, President-in-Office of the Council of the European Union (EU) and pre-presidential candidate.

Preside until the "last 15 minutes"

On Wednesday, 2 February, Mr Macron will put on these three hats in a single day, during a three-stage trip. He will first travel to Liévin, in the Pas-de-Calais, to look at the future of the mining basin; then he will go to the Louvre-lens Museum with the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, where he will exchange with secondary and secondary school students; before going to Tourcoing, in the North, for the informal meeting of European Ministers of the Interior within the framework of the French Presidency of the Council of the EU, during which he must defend the migration pact and the reform of the

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