It’s dark. When Emmanuel Macron enters the Louise-Michel college in Ganges, a small town in Hérault with a view of the Cévennes, this Thursday, April 20, the CGT has just cut off the electricity. “The Hérault has always been a land of resistance, and it remains so”, warned him by welcoming the Insoumis of the stage, the deputy Sébastien Rome, wearing his tricolor scarf.
In order not to remain in the dark, the Head of State hastily reviewed his plans. Chairs in hand, teachers, pupils and local elected officials move into the sunny playground. Photos and autographs on the way to the President of the Republic, surrounded by a crowd of students.
“When you get punched in the face every day, it’s nice to have little ones asking for selfies”, comments the deputy (Renaissance) Patrick Vignal, present at his side.
The day after a hectic visit to the Bas-Rhin, his first trip to try to reconnect with the field after the pension crisis, Emmanuel Macron came to detail his project for education. One of these “construction sites” that he announced on Monday during his televised address, giving himself “one hundred days” to act “in the service of France”.
He may continue to see his pension reform challenged, he wants to show that he is not an impeded president. Neither by power cuts, nor by the “Macron resignation” of the demonstrators, kept away behind an imposing security device. Even less by the throwing of eggs at the police and the din of pots, confiscated in the city in application of a prefectural decree. “Eggs and casseroles, he said when he arrived, amused, it’s just for cooking.” Implied: not to express his displeasure.
From a distance, on Twitter, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, however, wishes to gratify the demonstrators with a “bravo and thank you”.
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In shirt sleeves, this Thursday, the head of state came to announce what he presents as a “little Copernican revolution”: salary increases for teachers. Between 100 to 230 euros net per month “At all career levels”, from the start of the school year and “without conditions”, he specifies in the face of around fifteen teachers, students and elected officials installed in a circle, that he has just listen for more than an hour while taking notes.
Those who volunteer to fulfill additional missions will be able to receive “up to 500 euros per month”. “Since 1990, there has never been such an increase,” enthuses the president. With this “recognition system”, “we reboost everyone a little”, he hopes. “I’m waiting to see,” replies Mr. Wloczysiak, professor of technology, skeptically.
Second commitment, this time for parents of “struggling” students: he promises “systematic replacements” when teachers are absent. As for school leaders, he promises them “additional tools” to give them more freedom. As an aside, the Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, is delighted to see the president “revived”.
“SEE ALSO – Emmanuel Macron announces an increase in teachers’ salaries “between 100 and 230 euros net per month”
“There is time for anger, and there is time to move forward,” insists Emmanuel Macron. Thursday, he tried to override the blockages observed in several cities in France, in the middle of a day of “railway anger” organized by several SNCF unions. Despite his strong unpopularity, he hopes to show that his five-year term is not bogged down by the pension crisis. “Even if there are people who disagree with this reform, he wants to believe, there is not a majority of people in this country who are uncivil.”
The use of 49.3 to have its law adopted suddenly came to its camp, to the point that Elisabeth Borne gave herself the objective at the end of March, in an interview, of not using it outside of budgetary texts. “I am not responsible for the AFP interviews with the Prime Minister,” he explained to journalists, as if to distance himself from this statement. He then returned to his sedan, without stopping to chat with the demonstrators.
Conspired the day before in the Bas-Rhin, where he visited an SME, Emmanuel Macron did not want to meet his opponents from Ganges this time. On the way to Montpellier-Méditerranée airport, he preferred to make a surprise stopover in Pérols, a town near Montpellier where he came out on top in the first round of the presidential election. There, he drank a Basque beer with his Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs, Patricia Mirallès.
After which he did not escape requests for photos, more courteous exchanges, then angry arrests. “You don’t give a shit about what the people want to claim,” a passer-by told him, referring to his resignation. Response from Emmanuel Macron: “I am not going to resign, I assure you, that will not happen.” Then to reply, in a challenge to his opponents: “We will have to wait until 2027.”
