Emmanuel Macron returns to face the French

The President will participate in a major two-hour program on TF1 on Tuesday evening in a new format.

We must imagine the head of state on a set, outside the Élysée Palace , surrounded by more than 100 m2 of giant screens. He will react to the reports that will be broadcast there, on the daily lives of the French, with current affairs questions from the presenter Gilles Bouleau, but also from viewers, then debates with civil society actors, all this for two hours, on TF1 from 8:10 p.m.

Emmanuel Macron will face several key figures: CGT leader Sophie Binet on pensions, environmental activist Salomé Saqué, and mayor Robert Ménard, a supporter of the far right, on security. And then Tibo InShape, the most well-known bodybuilding influencer on social media, will challenge the president in a video.

The head of state is highly anticipated regarding a possible referendum project . He promised in his New Year's address that he would give the French people their say again this year; he has six months left. Will this take the form of a referendum or a new type of citizen consultation? On what topics? He has been consulting parliamentarians and his Prime Minister since January. His idea is to ask several simple, relevant questions: screens among young people, the end of life, or how to finance work. These are possible options, but radio silence from the Élysée Palace. Even François Bayrou doesn't know his final decisions, assures a coalition official.

For some, this is his way of returning to the national scene, of trying to rebuild the bond that has been fractured since the dissolution. " He's remade himself internationally, and wants to get his hands dirty again, it's his guilty pleasure ," analyzes a leading parliamentarian. According to a minister who often speaks with him, Emmanuel Macron " has had this in mind for a while ." " He told me ," she reports, " that he thinks this consultation is expected, that something will come of it. He wants to know what state France is in ."

But others around him are more skeptical. Some believe there are only blows to be taken with this return to the arena. The proof is that François Bayrou's popularity rating is plummeting. " I don't see the point for him ," one of his close associates declares. And within the government, it's taking badly. Some ministers would be happy to do without this return to business by the president, those who thought they were in quasi-cohabitation.