“It’s scandalous”: the Élysée denies comments on “smicards” attributed to Emmanuel Macron

The Élysée denied this Saturday morning to Le Figaro the quote attributed to Emmanuel Macron, on the front page of the daily La Marseillaise this Saturday February 24. While the visit of the President of the Republic is heckled at the Agricultural Show, the Bouches-du-Rhône newspaper attributes to Emmanuel Macron the following sentence: “Smicards prefer VOD subscriptions to healthier food”.

This phrase was not invented by La Marseillaise: it appears black and white in a press release published on February 19 by the Movement for the Defense of Family Operators (MODEF), a small farmers' union with a delegation of four representatives, including its president Pierre Thomas, was received at the Élysée on February 15. Only representatives of MODEF and presidential advisors attended this exchange with Emmanuel Macron.

Also read: Gabriel Attal is concerned about the “smicardization” of society among union leaders

Four days later, on February 19, MODEF published a press release rejoicing in particular that its demand for a minimum price guaranteed by the State was “making progress”, and on this occasion summarized the content of the exchange with the Head of State: “Our union demands family farming on a human scale made up of a million farmers! The President of the Republic has clearly expressed himself against this model. Worse, when we mentioned the difficulties of organic producers, he told us that 'smicards prefer telephones and VOD subscriptions rather than healthier food'. »

The National Secretary of MODEF Olivier Morin confirms this Saturday in Le Figaro that the President of the Republic's sentence was indeed kept in these exact terms: "there are four of us who heard it, he said precisely these words" assures- he, adding that these remarks were made during an exchange during which Emmanuel Macron recognized the difficulties, for consumers, in turning to better quality but more expensive foodstuffs.

However, MODEF vice-president Lucie Illy, who was also present at this meeting, told AFP that “the president did not express himself in these terms, but the substance is the same”. The MODEF press release did not trigger a controversy, but the resumption of this quote on the front page of La Marseillaise ignited the powder. The presidential entourage specifies to Le Figaro: “It’s objectively scandalous. It was a dialogue with MODEF behind closed doors. The subject of the share of expenditure on food was raised, but not in these terms. Adding to the Bouches-du-Rhône daily: “Moreover, we do not publish in quotation marks a sentence from the President of the Republic on the front page on the basis of reported remarks and without any verification.”