After other heads of government before him, Jean Castex’s turn to pass the test of his policy statement, Wednesday, July 15 before the National Assembly,The day after Emmanuel Macron’s July 14 television interview.
>> Follow our live on Jean Castex’s general policy statement
The declaration of general policy by the Prime Minister is not an obligation within the framework of the institutions of the Fifth Republic, but most newly appointed governments have recourse to it. Because this great oral allows the executive to print its mark and to indicate the policy to be carried out in the coming months. And it is sometimes a missed appointment: franceinfo invites you to come back to certain passages of the Prime Minister at the lectern of the Assembly.
1992: Pierre Bérégovoy threatens to reveal “a list of personalities”
Pierre Bérégovoy’s general policy statement of April 8, 1992 is often considered the most “failed”. The Prime Minister has just succeeded Edith Cresson at Matignon. A year of high-risk legislative elections for the Socialists, he delivers an offensive speech. The left no longer has an absolute majority at the Palais Bourbon and Pierre Bérégovoy is heckled during his speech, which prompts him to take out a sheet of paper and become threatening: “I have here a list of personalities that I could possibly tell you about.” Words that cause an outcry: the right decides to leave the hemicycle.
1991: Edith Cresson makes an “agreed” speech
Edith Cresson is the only woman to have been appointed to the post of Prime Minister, and therefore the only one to have delivered a speech on general policy in front of the deputies. An appointment that seemed like a surprise at the time, but the ability to govern of the one nicknamed the “French Maggie”, in reference to Margaret Thatcher, is not called into question. Until May 22, 1991, when she presented her general policy statement to the deputies, mostly men. She fails to calm the rowdiness of the Assembly or to silence the sexist jeers that mock her dress or her thin voice. “I made a speech that was agreedremembers Edith Cresson at the microphone of France Bleu. What I wanted to say, I was sure would be criticized.”
2002: Jean-Pierre Raffarin releases a “raffarinade”
If the declaration of general policy allows a Prime Minister to expose his future policy, we also retain a style or a sentence. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, appointed Prime Minister at the start of Jacques Chirac’s second term in 2002, accustomed to colorful phrases and truisms, will not miss it. During his speech, he will deliver one of his first “raffarinades”: “The road is straight but the slope is steep.”
1993: Edouard Balladur, the longest speech
Edouard Balladur’s declaration lasts approximately 1 hour 45 minutes. On April 8, 1993, the right-wing Prime Minister announced that he wanted “make France an example again” and quotes Marc-Aurèle about the economic crisis that France is going through at the time. This general policy speech is known as the longest. A duration that is important: Jean-Marc Ayrault will be criticized in 2012 for his speech of about 1 hour 30 minutes. A speech marked by the discomfort of a socialist deputy, which will force the Prime Minister to stop.
1988: Michel Rocard, the daily life of the French and the repair of “elevators”
The Socialist Prime Minister wants to imprint his style from his general policy statement. The left regained the majority in the National Assembly after the re-election of François Mitterrand. In his speech of June 29, 1988, Michel Rocard talks about his “dream” for France and everyday life. It announces the achievement of “emergency work in degraded neighborhoods” detailing measures such as “repairs of stairwells, elevators, entrance halls”provoking laughter from the opposition benches.
1961: Jacques Chaban-Delmas makes his “new society” shine
Almost 60 years later, it remains the most famous policy speech. On September 16, 1969, Jacques Chaban-Delmas sketched “a new society” in France after May-1968. “I am convinced that we are entering a new era, where great changes are possible”, says the Prime Minister. The speech seduces, even on the benches of the left, but a little less on the side of the Elysée, where Georges Pompidou considers this Prime Minister too presidential. He will be sacked in July 1972.