Elisabeth Borne in a down jacket, Bruno Le Maire in his black turtleneck… The executive takes the stage in winter clothes to convince the French to limit the heating.
“The rule is to heat up to 19°C,” the prime minister said on BFMTV-RMC on Monday.
The deposit aims to change the habits of the French in terms of energy consumption, between the fear of a power cut in winter and the rise in prices.
Down jacket and padded jacket
The Matignon tenant conveyed the message by taking out her winter clothes. On Tuesday, for a meeting with Lyon’s environmentalist mayor David Doucet about energy sobriety, she wore a quilted jacket emblazoned with butterflies.
This Wednesday in Oise, the head of government wears a blue down jacket with a brown print, as does her Minister for the Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
“You will no longer see me with a tie but with a turtleneck”
This Tuesday, the Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, had also stepped on the plate.
“You will no longer see me with a tie but with a turtleneck. And I think it will be very good, it will allow us to save energy, show sobriety,” Inter had launched on France.
Before posting a photo of him on Twitter a few hours later in a navy blue turtleneck.
No official request from the president
Should we see there an instruction approved by Matignon or the Elysee to show that the ministers are also making an effort? The executive has kept a bad memory of a sequence that had made noise in July.
In the midst of a heat wave, the ministers’ cars had been left with the engine running to run the air conditioning. However, a few days earlier, the government asked the French to limit the use of air conditioning. But this time, the initiative seems to be individual.
“There has been no request in that sense,” a ministerial adviser responds to BFMTV.com.
However, not all ministers should adopt the wool sweater in the coming weeks. Olivier Véran, the government spokesman, should, for example, keep his suit and tie on his official trips, confides to his entourage.
“It’s politics for fools”
Proof, however, that Bruno Le Maire’s initiative could be extended: the former health minister surely “wore a turtleneck all day” Tuesday at the ministry’s offices on Cnews. Enough to demonstrate that the limit is maintained between hit of com and duty of representation.
The maneuver is not unanimous in the political class. Marine Le Pen saw it this Wednesday on RTL “a” “desperate” and “political for fools” communication.
“Do they not have enough heating? Let them dress in cashmere!” He scolded her the day before on social networks, accusing the minister of being “Marie-Antoinette Le Maire”.
“A paternalistic stance”
Communication consultant Gaspard Gantzer, who dealt with François Hollande’s during his visit to the Elysée, is hardly more tender.
“Everything that is underlined is grotesque. The intention seems laudable to me, but this position is paternalistic. There is a small side ‘my good children, do as your parents’, put on big sweaters’”, judges the communicator.
The winter clothes must remain in the cabinets of the ministers for a few more days, and the next few days they will cool down before returning to warmth.
Source: BFM TV
