“Un projet de justice et de progrès social”: President Macron’s 2020 new year message to the nation. A linguistic viewpoint

Abstract

Abstract President Macron’s New Year message on 31 December 2019 was given against a background of social unrest due to his proposed Pension reforms. He defended his policy reiterating the phrase “un projet de justice et de progress social”, but passing responsibility for resolving the crisis to his Prime Minister. The general analytical framework is that of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Macron uses first person singular (je) and plural (nous) subject pronouns to more or less the same extent but the singular form is used mainly with mental processes and the plural with material processes. There are in addition a large number of first person pronoun references other than those that function as grammatical subject: Macron manipulates the ambiguity of the plural pronoun to associate the general public with regard to responsibility for the government’s actions. Material processes are encoded more frequently as non-finite or as nominalizations where specification of the agents is not required, than as finite verbs. Obligation is attributed to the plural nous rather than the singular je. Thus Macron defends his policies while avoiding accepting personal responsibility for them.