We must occupy the space, hammer home the message and, in short, provide President Macron’s after-sales service. The day after his solemn address, delivered Tuesday evening at 8 p.m., no less than six ministers mobilized in the radio and television mornings to agree with the Head of State. While the opposition mostly denounced a “disconnected” president, members of the government portrayed a leader in line with the expectations of the French, determined to maintain a course.
“The president said strong things yesterday. He put things into words,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on LCI on Tuesday morning. For the tenant of Beauvau, Emmanuel Macron aptly designated this “large part of the French who are either angry, or are desperate, or are worried about the future”. “For several reasons: there is the pension reform, but there are also the rising prices.”
“It was a speech of truth, and a speech of courage, and a speech that charts a course”, added Agnès Pannier-Runacher (Energy Transition) on Europe 1. “The priorities” have in his eyes been fixed, “ based on what he heard from the French”. Like the subject of work, on which the president wants to look at more length.
The work, and a “Fairer distribution of the effort”, which Olivier Véran was delighted to have found in the speech of Emmanuel Macron. “They want something that is fairer in sharing, and what we say to the French is that we hear this message”, thus pleaded the government spokesperson at the microphone of France Info. Before insisting on “the need to work with the unions”, which refuse at this stage to resume the dialogue. Too bad if the pension reform – which still crystallizes the tensions – was only discussed for two minutes at the start of the intervention. “I believe that restricting the concerns of the French to the only pension reform, that would be that, to be beside the plate”, swept the minister.
It is also in this sense that Gabriel Attal argued on France Inter “collective responsibility”, in particular to “continue to build a Marshall Plan for the middle classes in the months to come”. “A clear roadmap has been set,” he added.
This responsibility does not escape opposition, targeted by ministers. The Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt thus castigated on RTL “this kind of pincer movement between the far left and the far right (…) which positions itself in a kind of culture of irresponsibility, some seeking chaos, others to make the most of it. For Bruno Le Maire (Finances), on BFMTV / RMC, “what our opponents are proposing”, it is also “the big sleep, the step back (…), no pension reform, no transformation of the economic model”. A “big sleep”, which could end “in a big nightmare for our compatriots”.