(Paris) What next for the five-year term? Emmanuel Macron addresses the French on Monday evening to give his outlook after the enactment of the pension reform, in an atmosphere of persistent political and social crisis.
The speech, scheduled for 8 p.m. (2 p.m. Eastern Time), will be broadcast on major television channels.
“ The president wishes to be able to have a message for the French people on this occasion, as this moment around the pension reform is ending which undoubtedly leaves anger in the heads and in the hearts ”, we explain in her entourage.
However, to pick up the pieces after three months of intense social crisis, and with an executive damaged by the use of the controversial article 49.3 of the French Constitution allowing the adoption of a bill without a vote of the deputies – and still deprived of majority in the Assembly, the task promises to be immense.
The publication of the law in the Official Journal just hours after its partial validation by the Constitutional Council was experienced as a new provocation by opponents.
“ We cannot pass the towel”, said CFDT General Secretary Laurent Berger on Monday, warning against the strong “resentment” in the world of work and excluding any short-term resumption of discussions with Emmanuel Macron.
“ The world of work is still shocked […] it is out of the question to go and discuss as if nothing had happened ”, underlined the number one of the first French union.
The inter-union decided not to go to an invitation from the president to the Élysée on Tuesday.
Calls from opponents of the reform have flourished on social networks for pot concerts and rallies in front of town halls or prefectures at 8 p.m.
Laurent Berger, on the other hand, rejected an appeal threatening to disrupt the 2024 Olympics, with in particular the rise of the hashtag
“ The Olympics must be a party, it must be a magical moment for those who love sport and therefore, it is out of the question to make neither this type of threat nor this type of action during the Olympics”, a- he declared.
Emmanuel Macron, who will receive ministers and leaders of the majority in the afternoon, wants in front of the French “to draw up prospects for the weeks and months to come” and “intends to outline the sites”, according to his entourage. It is a question of “ reaffirming the course which is its republican order, full employment and reindustrialization – but also restoring overall coherence to its action ”.
He should also quickly come out of the presidential palace to “discuss with the French”. A trip could take place on Wednesday or Thursday, on the theme of education.
On the side of the inter-union, the time is rather to attempt a show of force during the traditional meeting of May 1.
“ A popular and historic tidal wave ”, wished the new secretary general of the powerful CGT, Sophie Binet, when her counterpart of the CFDT “ wishes that on May 1, we “break the house” in number of demonstrators in the street “.
A unitary May 1st would be a first since 2002, a few days after the famous April 21st which saw a candidate from the far right – then Jean-Marie Le Pen – reach the second round of the presidential election for the first time.
In the meantime, the four representative unions of the SNCF are calling for a “day of expression of railway anger” on Thursday.
Restarting the machine will be all the more difficult as the executive and the majority come out shaken from the sequence. “We are determined to speed up” while wanting to “appease the country”, declared Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne on Saturday.
“ A completely charred prime minister, a discredited government ”, judged the leader of the National Rally party (extreme right), Marine Le Pen, for whom the head of state has three solutions: referendum, dissolution… or resignation.
A coalition with the right still seems unlikely. Such a hypothesis supposes “ a program and a leader, and LR has neither program nor leader”, decided the boss of the presidential Renaissance party, Stéphane Séjourné.
Other majority leaders, such as the president of the centrist party – the MoDem – François Bayrou, have warned against any turn “left or right”.
“ Does the absence of an absolute majority prevent us from carrying out the reforms? Obviously not”, evacuates an executive adviser.
