Emmanuel Macron: ‘I will be president for all of us’ 4/24/22 Transcript

Speaker 1: (00:00)
Okay, Emmanuel Macron there now taking to the stage. But we are expecting to hear from the French President, the man who’s just won another five years, very shortly.

Emmanuel Macron/Translator: (00:09)
Thank you. Thank you, dear friends, dear compatriots, here in Paris and throughout the land, overseas, and in the hexagon, first of all, thank you so much. After five years of transformation, happy times, difficult times, exceptional moments as well on the 24th of April, 2022, the majority of us have made the choice for me to be the president of your Republic, which makes me very happy. And I shall preside for the next five years.

I would like to thank all my supporters, everyone who’s carried out voluntary work, our companions who have been accompanying me right from the beginning. And who’ve made this election a possibility.

I know that you have given it an enormous amount of energy, you’ve shared your convictions. And when you really touch the heart, you can get to the truth. Thank you, I know what you’ve done for me. Thank you so much.

I’d like to thank all French men and women who at the first and the second round have trusted in me so that we can have a France be more independent, a stronger Europe. And through investments and deep change, carry on ensuring concrete progress for everyone by assuring creativity, innovation in our country. And in order to ensure that France is a major ecological nation.

I also know that a number of our compatriots have voted for me not to necessarily support my ideas, but to act as a barrier to the extreme right. I would here like to thank them and tell them that I’m aware that this vote will oblige me in the future years to make sure that I’m a depository of their sense of responsibility, their attachment to the Republic, and also respect for the differences that have been expressed over the past few weeks.

I also believe, I’m thinking of all our compatriots who abstained, their silence means that they refuse to choose, and will also have to respond to that.

I finally believe that those who voted from Madam Le Pen, and I know how disappointed she must be tonight, from the beginning I asked you not to whistle against her. So don’t do that. Because from right now, I’m no longer a candidate for one particular side, but I’m the president of everyone. And I know that for a number of our compatriots who today chose the extreme right, the anger and the disagreements meant that they voted for that project will also find an answer. It’ll be my responsibility and everyone that surrounds me. Because today’s vote means that we’ll have to think about all the difficulties of lives lived and to respond with efficiency to the anger that’s been expressed.

My dear compatriots, my dear friends, today, you have a choice for a humanist project, ambitious for the independence of our country, for our Europe, a project which is Republican in its values, a project that is a social project and an ecological project. A project which is founded on work and creation. A project of the freeing of our forces on an academic level, cultural level and entrepreneurial.

This specific project, I want to carry it with strength in the coming years, by also being a depository of the divisions that have been demonstrated and the differences. And I want to make sure every single day that all are respected. And I want to work towards a fairer society and equality between men and women.

So in order to do so, it will have to be demanding and will have to be ambitious. We have so much to do. The war in Ukraine exists to remind us that we’re going through tragic times where France must have its voice heard and show the clarity of that choice. And to build up its strength in all areas. And we will do so.

And we’ll also, dear friends, have to be respectful because after all our country is full of doubts and full of divisions. So, we will have to be strong. And no one will be left by the wayside.

It’ll be our responsibility together to ensure this unity and therefore we’ll be able to live a happier life in France. And we’ll be able to face the challenges that are coming for sure in the coming years. The coming years will not necessarily be tranquil, but they will be historical. And together, we will be able to make sure that we cover them for our future generations.

So my dear compatriots, my dear compatriots, meet with ambition and with care for our country, for all of us, I would like to, along your side, to deal with these five coming years. It won’t be the continuity of the previous five years, but it’ll be a new method to try to ensure better years at the service of our country, of our youth.

Every one of us will have a responsibility, each and every one of us will have to commit themselves because after all, all of us represent more than ourselves. And that’s what really makes of the French people. Ensures this extraordinary strength that I love so deeply, so intensely, and that I am so proud of being able to serve once again. Long live the Republic. Long live France.

Speaker 1: (10:57)
We can see there the cheers of the Emmanuel Macron supporters, chanting one and two and five more years. His victory speech, he said he wanted to see a fairer society with equality between men and women, where nobody is left by the wayside.

Speaker 1: (11:13)
But he was also acknowledging that he is leading a country that, in his words, is full of doubts. He said that he was aware of the differences and he wanted to respond to the anger. At one point, he actually told his supporters not to whistle out or boo Marine Le Pen because now he’s no longer the candidate of one party, but the president of everyone.

Speaker 3: (11:35)
(Singing).

Speaker 1: (11:35)
Well, let’s bring in Dominic Waghorn at this point shall we over the singer you can see there on the stage next to the French president and his wife. He did note, didn’t he, the number of people who voted for him, not because they were supporting his ideas, but to act as a barrier to the extreme right? He thanked them as well.

Dominic Waghorn: (12:22)
Yeah, he’s acknowledged it. I mean, it’s a strange mixture, isn’t it, it’s an emphatic victory, a convincing victory, 16 points over his vanquished rival. But on the other hand, he knows it’s qualified because a lot of French people abstained and he acknowledged that and he said, I’m the president of everyone, acknowledging his challenge in trying to reach out to those people who felt they had nothing to vote for in this election.

But also he acknowledged that a lot of French people voted for him as a barrier to Le Pen rather than voting for him. The ‘vote barrage’ as it’s called in French. And that’s something he’s got to live with now. And he’s got to try and get over that and make up for it in the next five years of his presidency.

And I think the style of this victory rally is kind of acknowledging that, it’s inclusive, it’s diversive, he’s shaking hands, he’s not striding to victory on his own as he was in Louvre palace five years ago, he’s walking through the crowds at the head of a group of young people at the beginning and he’s shaking hands. And he’s acknowledging, he’s got to reach out to the French, to those French who didn’t vote for him and didn’t vote at all. And try and get them on side to try and heal all of the divisions of resentment we’ve seen open up in this election.

Speaker 1: (13:34)
Yeah, as you say, Dominic, it is a bit of a strange combination, isn’t it? Because although, as you say, he’s managed to forge an alliance of people who are very supportive of him, right through to people who had to hold their nose all the way into the polling stations, just to try and stop the emergence of the far right. And yet at the same time, Annabel Lever, who we’re also joined by as well, at the same time, it does feel that he has at least secured a mandate that is strong enough that actually the next five years could be a little bit easier as a result.

Annabelle Lever: (14:08)
I hope so. I mean, it would be nice to think that this has given him, in a way, the room for maneuver now. I mean, the Republican party seems to have collapsed. So at that sense, at least he’s got some room to move to the left and maybe try and address the cost of living crisis and the sense of really of no future that lies behind so many of the voters for Le Pen. Because clearly, I mean, some of the Le Pen voters clearly are sort of, let’s be blunt, they’re racist and they’re xenophobic and the rest, but clearly that’s only a small part of what’s going on with Le Pen’s vote. And it does seem like he really needs to try and address the sort of the front that feels left behind and that’s voting for Le Pen and for Mélenchon or that’s simply abstaining. And so I hope that this sort of mandate really gives him the confidence also to be a bit braver that way.

Emmanuel Macron: ‘I will be president for all of us’ 4/24/22 Transcript

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