After three months of a deep social crisis, President Emmanuel Macron, who succeeded in passing his unpopular pension reform, assured Monday “to hear the anger” of the French and promised to tackle new projects to respond to their concerns. A speech immediately rejected by the opposition.
“This reform was necessary”, reiterated Mr. Macron in a solemn televised address, two days after the promulgation of the law and its flagship measure, the raising of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64, rejected by the majority of the French.
The head of state, however, assured “hear” the anger that has manifested in the country since January, during twelve days of strikes and demonstrations, and which is still very strong.
“Obviously, this reform is not accepted” and “no one can remain deaf” to this anger, he declared, using a more conciliatory tone after months of tension with the trade unions, the street and the political opposition.
Eager to move on and get out of a crisis that has bogged down the start of his second five-year term, the Head of State promised the opening of new projects and gave himself “a hundred days” on Monday to launch a “appeasement” and “action” plan by July 14.
“Pact of life at work”
“We have before us a hundred days of appeasement, unity, ambition and action in the service of France, it is our duty and I trust us, I trust you to get there”, a- he said.
The Head of State announced that he wanted to “build a new pact for life at work” and repeated that he was ready to receive the unions who would like to discuss it with him.
Negotiations will focus on the need to “improve employee incomes”, to “advance careers”, to “better share wealth”, to “improve working conditions”, to “find solutions to wear and tear professional” or to “help with retraining”.
The French president also announced that he wanted to tackle several other issues to improve the lives of French people – school, delinquency, overcrowding of emergency services and social fraud – and promised to “strengthen control of illegal immigration”.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne will detail a roadmap “as of next week”, he said.
Pile of green wood
But this desire for appeasement was immediately rejected by the main tenors of the opposition.
The leader of the far right, Marine Le Pen, the main beneficiary in the polls of the crisis, denounced a “disconnected, solitary and obtuse practice of power”, which announces according to her “the continuation of a five-year term of contempt, ‘indifference and brutality’.
“By announcing the withdrawal of the pension reform or the referendum, Emmanuel Macron could have re-established the link with the French this evening. He chose to turn his back on them again,” she added.
“Unreal Macron. Completely out of reality, assumes the theft of two years of freedom. The saucepans ring truer, ”said the leader of the radical left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in reference to the call from certain opponents to knock on saucepans in the street at the time of the speech.
The leader of the traditional right, Eric Ciotti, whose training is essential for the government which only enjoys a relative majority in the National Assembly, meanwhile regretted a “catalogue of pious wishes”.
“The method obviously does not change with laudable objectives but without the slightest questioning,” he said.
Since January, hundreds of thousands of French people have marched regularly against the pension reform project in demonstrations sometimes interspersed with violence, until the final episode last Friday with the validation of the essentials of the reform by the Constitutional Council. and its promulgation at Official newspaper of Saturday.