After the speech, the music. A video circulating on social networks since Tuesday shows Emmanuel Macron singing “Le Refuge”, a Pyrenean song that the president knows well – we have already seen him singing it, beret screwed on his head, in the company of Pyrenean shepherds at the summer 2021 – in the company of several young people, in a Parisian street. A video authenticated and dated, in particular by CheckNews or RTL and whose authenticity the Élysée has confirmed to HuffPost.
The Head of State was approached in the Sainte-Placide district, in the 6? arrondissement of Paris, by a group of choristers from the Saint-Longin choir, who therefore offered to sing this traditional song. Emmanuel Macron will not have been difficult to convince, yielding “for a couplet”. That’s when the singers open the Canto app, a kind of mobile karaoke that offers “popular and traditional” songs.
?? A few minutes later
Problem: This app is known for being close to the far right. According to Liberation, songs from the Third Reich are even present there. The association received 40,000 euros of public funds and was founded by activists from the radical far right. Some choristers would also be from the identity movement. “He could not know at that time the background of each person with whom he was discussing”, however defends the Elysée. In a long excerpt from the video, Canto does indeed appear to be unquoted.
The video is released around midnight on a Facebook page called “Project Canto”, with the caption: “Only the mafia and Project Canto can blackmail a head of state!” Let’s re-enchant this country! »
“After his speech, the President of the Republic took a moment with his wife. As they were walking late in the evening in Paris, they were stopped by a group of young people singing who asked the president if he could join them. He then joined them for a Pyrenean song that he loves and knows, ”recounts the Elysée.
If the video makes the rounds on social networks, it’s as much for the use of the application as for the gap between the speech, which absolutely did not convince the opposition, and the song moment offered by the president. .
