It did not escape him. For his first official speech since the promulgation of the pension reform on Monday, Emmanuel Macron had to face the facts. After some agreed justifications on the need to push back the legal retirement age to 64 and a lucid observation on the fact that “a consensus has not been found”, the president wondered: “Is it for much an accepted reform? Obviously not.”
The saucepan concerts organized throughout France in front of town halls during his intervention testify to this. Of this anger that has been expressed almost every week in the street for three months, Emmanuel Macron offers his own reading: “Anger in the face of a job which, for many French people, no longer allows them to live well, in the face of prices that go up, refuel, shopping, canteen. (…) Finally, anger because some have the feeling of doing their part, but without being rewarded for their efforts, neither in aid nor in effective public services.”
now, what to do? First, evacuate two tracks. “The answer can be neither in immobility nor in extremism”, assured the Head of State, before proposing his solution: “Open or resume three major projects.” On the job first. It was there that he reached out to the unions to open a series of negotiations on wages, careers, working conditions, professional wear and tear, the employment of seniors and professional retraining. With them, he wants to build a “pact of life at work”.
Second project: justice, as well as the republican and democratic order. The President of the Republic promises to continue the recruitment of magistrates, to create new gendarmerie brigades in the countryside, to also strengthen the control of illegal immigration “while better integrating those who join our country”. It provides “strong announcements from the month of May” against delinquency “and all social or tax fraud”. It also announces “main avenues for the functioning of our institutions to gain in efficiency and citizen participation”.
Last priority finally, “progress to live better”. The Head of State is housing education there, but also health with the promise to “unclog” all emergency services by the end of 2024. Or even the improvement of the living conditions of people who live in the disadvantaged neighborhoods, in troubled areas overseas or in the countryside. “There again, we will find concrete solutions to improve daily life,” promises Emmanuel Macron.
To succeed in carrying out these projects, for lack of an absolute majority in the National Assembly, he turns to “all the forces of action”. Understand: elected officials, political forces, trade unions. He intends to work “from the month of May” on “coalitions and new alliances”, by relaunching his National Council for Refoundation.
The difficult mission of “expanding the majority”, entrusted on March 22 on TF1 and France 2 to Élisabeth Borne, is therefore extended. The Prime Minister obtains a reprieve of three months: “one hundred days”. Until July 14, date of a “first assessment”, according to the deadline set Monday by Emmanuel Macron. The head of government is responsible for detailing this roadmap next week. She will not be alone in trying to lead this “national momentum”, warned the President of the Republic: “I will get involved”.
From Thursday, in Hérault, the Head of State plans to launch a series of trips. He still has to be able to return to the field without being heckled. In recent days, several members of the executive have paid the price for the “anger” of the French. The Minister of Health, François Braun, left Monday a visit to the hospital in Langon (Gironde) under the boos of demonstrators from La France insoumise and the CGT.
Same treatment for his colleague Roland Lescure (Industry), strongly challenged at the same time by trade unionists, during a trip to the Duralex glassworks, in Loiret. Ministers as executives of the majority have few illusions about the hypothesis of a “return to normal”. “The president has the headwind: everything he touches becomes a controversy,” worries an executive of the presidential coalition.
Obstacle on the road to “appeasement” imagined by the executive, unions and left-wing parties do not intend to weaken their mobilization until Labor Day, May 1. Tuesday, at the Elysée, only the employers’ organizations planned to honor the invitation launched by the head of state – the inter-union declined it. The boss of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, deplored Monday evening the “void” of the presidential address. As for his political opponents, they are on the
Validation of the main part of his law by the Constitutional Council, express promulgation then speech. These three steps now completed, the president still hopes to turn the page on pensions. “Four years ago, almost to the day (…), Notre-Dame de Paris had just burned down, he recalled aloud. I told you the next day that we would rebuild in five. What hadn’t I heard then? All the commentators told us: “impossible! Why this heading? Untenable”. Well we will. (…) It must be the same for the nation’s major construction sites”. With one difference: this time, he only allows himself a hundred days.
