This paper deals with one of the functional roles of the figures of speech. We shall analyse how the phatic function is put into practice by some figures of speech to render discourse more dynamic, to activate politeness and to create a better communicative relationship between the journalist and his readers. The study takes into consideration editorials published in five French newspapers (L‘Humanité, Libération, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Le Point) before the presidential election of 2007.