Door-to-door and apartment meetings, old-fashioned politics has a future more than ever

Among the many questions that occupy Edouard Philippe’s supporters at the time of launching the campaign, is this: should we strengthen his presence on social networks at the risk of blurring his image? Sunday, in Reims, the presidential candidate rejected the idea of ​​investing in TikTok to speak to young people. On the other hand, in his eyes, one format is perfectly suited to surveying the French: the apartment meeting. “I wish a good 1974 presidential campaign to Edouard Philippe and his team!” quipped Jordan Bardella.

However, the RN leader is not unaware of the value of old world methods, he who walks around agricultural fairs to shake hands. Old-fashioned politics is making a comeback in a world of algorithms. The choice to organize a thousand apartment meetings simultaneously responds to several Philippist convictions. One, it resonates with the image of Edouard Philippe as a local elected official. Two, it prevents a candidate presented as a statesman from making a fool of himself on TikTok. Third, it is based on the conviction that the prescriptive voices in a campaign come from orators of flesh and blood. “Mayors have a particular role on which we must rely to convince the French,” the mayor of Le Havre explained on Sunday.