Against all expectations, a civil discussion took place between Emmanuel Macron and his political opponents on Wednesday in Saint-Denis, a suburb north of Paris, with no less than 12 hours of exchanges. It took the austere setting of the former royal abbey of Saint-Denis, the confiscation of cell phones (stored in a box at the entrance to the room), and the exclusion of all advisers (even Macron's chief of staff Alexis Kohler) and of all journalists for trust to be established.

It wasn't a foregone conclusion. The four representatives of the left-wing Nouvelle Union Populaire et Sociale (NUPES) alliance – Manuel Bompard (La France Insoumise, LFI), Olivier Faure (Parti Socialiste, PS), Fabien Roussel (Parti Communiste Français, PCF) and Marine Tondelier (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, EELV) – had threatened the day before to boycott the dinner, so as not to give the impression of banding with the right-wing Eric Ciotti (Les Républicains, LR) and far-right Jordan Bardella (Rassemblement National, RN). Nonetheless, they stayed to the end of this unprecedented gathering orchestrated by the president. "3:14 am, released from prison," a participant wrote to Le Monde in the dead of night, relieved to be out in the fresh air again. Macron "could have gone on until 6 in the morning," he the participant. "He's a war machine."

On the government side, Education Minister Gabriel Attal, speaking at the Elysée dinner on Tuesday evening, feared that LFI would deliver a shattering blow before the end of the day and recommended a response in the media. In the end, this was not necessary. The left-wing opposition parties, who arrived in groups shortly before 3 pm, said they had "no illusions" before entering the grounds of the abbey, now a school for children of Legion of Honor recipients. Tondelier, the leader of the Greens, cited previous initiatives undertaken by the president, such as the "great national debate" organized after the Yellow Vest crisis and the citizens' climate convention, which she said resulted in "a major disappointment." Faure, the Socialist, was not the only one to warn against this "PR stunt" but was keen to adopt a constructive attitude. "Whenever it's possible to come up with concrete proposals, we do so," he asserted.

LR party boss Ciotti, who arrived late "because of traffic jams," warned that "small ploys or 'coms plans' would not be up to the task." On arriving at the high school where he passed his baccalaureate exam, RN President Bardella said that he would not serve "as a crutch for the head of state" but that he would "echo millions of French people who want a different policy," particularly on security and purchasing power. The leaders of the parties in Macron's governing coalition – Stéphane Séjourné for Renaissance, Edouard Philippe for Horizons, and François Bayrou for MoDem – did not appear before the meeting.

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