The sentence, like the sequence, is starting to date. But it has become cult and has entered popular language. Not sure thatEdouard Balladur, died Monday at 97appreciated it enormously. But his “I’m asking you to stop!” remained famous.
The sentence corresponds to the most difficult moment in the political career of the former French prime minister. During the 1995 presidential campaign, he was given the ultra-favorite status. According to polls and commentators, no surprise: Balladur was going to settle at the Élysée.
The rest remained in history: defying all predictions: Jacques Chirac gradually caught up and turned the tables. He passed Balladur in the first round (20.8% of the vote against 18.6%) and was elected in the second, against the socialist Lionel Jospin.
It was therefore on the evening of the first round, in April 1995, with immense disappointment, that Édouard Balladur spoke to his supporters.
The “Guignols” seize it
The moment is solemn. After a fratricidal war with his so-called “friend of 30 years”, he wants a victory for the right and calls for a vote for Chirac in the second round. “His supporters, undoubtedly too confident at the start, digested the defeat poorly. To the point of insulting Jacques Chirac”, recounts “Le Figaro”.
Edouard Balladur then says, dry and cold but visibly very annoyed: “I ask you to stop!” Twice. He will then abandon all personal ambition.
What’s next? The “Guignols” of Canal+ seize it, like the imitator Laurent Gerra or the sniper Laurent Baffie, and have a field day, explains “Le Parisien”. Who notes that we even find the phrase in an opus of the video game “Call of Duty”, in an episode of The Simpsons or in the comic book “Asterix and the Transitalic”. And the sequence, underlines the French daily, continually resurfaces online, in the form of “memes”.
