First up is a two-day trip to the Lot, a department in the Midi-Pyrénées region of southern France, where Macron will spend time in two villages chatting and lunching with both locals and elected officials.
Coming on the back of an easing of coronavirus restrictions ahead of the summer, the trip is designed to help promote tourism – a major sector for the French economy that has been hard hit by the health crisis – and to boost employment prospects for the holidays, the Elysee said in a statement.
Désindustrialisation de la France, déclassement des classes moyennes, immigration, état du pays après les Gilets jaunes et la pandémie, @EmmanuelMacron exprime sa vision de la France et présente « sa » France. Un entretien inattendu dans @zadiglemag. En kiosque & librairies. pic.twitter.com/XYqdWXL4s6
— eric fottorino (@ericfotto) June 1, 2021
In an interview with Zadig magazine last month, Macron said Lot was one of several areas in France where he could “take the pulse of things” and better understand “what is accepted in France and what is not”.
Macron’s tour of France comes two and a half years after he met with with local mayors in the aftermath of the grassroots Yellow Vests movement.
He will take a dozen or so similar trips – two per week – of mainland France and its overseas territories until mid-July. Polynesia is rumoured to be the final destination.
Described as pre-campaign strategy, the tour comes as Macron’s five-year presidential mandate draws to an end in April 2022.
