Édouard Philippe calls on Emmanuel Macron to clarify his comments on the fuel crisis

Édouard Philippe, candidate for the 2027 presidential election, estimated this Thursday on RTL that Emmanuel Macron needed to clarify his comments on the fuel crisis a little more with the French.

“I hope that this evening he will explain what he told us during the meeting”: “that this crisis, given the antagonism between the United States and Iran, the effects on the production, refining and distribution of gasoline, it will last,” declared Édouard Philippe on Thursday on RTL.

“The return to normal should not occur before the presidential election,” underlines the president’s entourage, for whom it will be a question of “showing the extent to which France is acting.”

Emmanuel Macron invited party leaders and certain presidential candidates to the Élysée last week. He painted a dark picture of the state of the world, between the wars in the Near and Middle East, or Russia’s “hybrid” attacks in Europe.

Some of the participants left feeling “dizzy”, others on the contrary denounced “a communication operation” or even, according to Éric Ciotti, a diversion to “hide the French decline”.

The surge in prices at the pump and the state of the Russian threat should occupy most of Emmanuel Macron's interview Thursday at 8:00 p.m. on TF1 and France 2. The opportunity for the Head of State to stay in the game while posing as a "guarantor" of the presidential election.

The fuel front, which fuels social discontent, is the most visible for the French who see their purchasing power shrink as the price of diesel increases - on average Wednesday, 2.40 euros per liter in France, according to an AFP analysis.

The other major part of the interview should be devoted to “recalling the state of the Russian threat and saying what is being done to counter it.” The president should return to an event that he considers revealing but undervalued in public opinion: the presence of explosive drones at the German airport of Leipzig which, if they had exploded as planned against Ukrainian planes, would probably have caused human losses. A failed attack attributed to Moscow.

Also read: Soaring fuel prices, Russian threat, social discontent… Emmanuel Macron at the time of explanations this Thursday evening