The High Commissioner for Planning, President of the MoDem and Mayor of Pau was the guest of “8:30 a.m. franceinfo”, Wednesday March 22, 2023.
François Bayrou, High Commissioner for Planning, President of the MoDem and Mayor of Pau, was the guest of the 8:30 a.m. franceinfoWednesday, March 22, 2023. Comments by Emmanuel Macron, pension reform, immigration bill, affair of the assistants of MEPs from the MoDem… He answered questions from Marc Fauvelle and Salhia Brakhlia.
The legitimacy of the demonstrations “is not superior to the democratic legitimacy”
After the remarks made by Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday evening in front of the elected representatives of the presidential majority, François Bayrou admits that “in these times words are easily overdone”. While many wild demonstrations have taken place in recent evenings to denounce the pension reform and the use of Article 49.3 of the Constitution, the Head of State notably affirmed on Tuesday that “the crowd” did not have “no legitimacy” face “to the people who express themselves through their elected representatives”. François Bayrou tries to calm the situation, saying that “everyone has their own legitimacy”. “The demonstrations have their legitimacy, but it is not a legitimacy superior to democratic legitimacy”, insists the president of the Modem. He also denounces “the glass wall” erected since “several decades” between citizens and elected officials. For François Bayrou, the mobilizations of recent weeks are a “symptom of this incommunicability between the official powers and the grassroots citizens”.
The president “must reassure the French about the absolute necessity of the reform” of pensions
François Bayrou believes that Emmanuel Macron must respond to “two imperatives” during his interview on Wednesday at 1 p.m. on the TF1 and France 2 news. According to the president of the MoDem, the head of state must first “reassure the French about the absolute necessity of reform” retirements. Moreover, he considers on this point that the government has not explained the text sufficiently and has not “not talked about the financial imbalances of the system”. François Bayrou also calls on Emmanuel Macron to “replace the action of the executive in a broader framework and more projected towards the future”.
Pensions: “Making the youngest pay for the long term is morally unacceptable”
“Making the youngest pay for the boomers in the long term is morally unacceptable”considers François Bayrou, who judges “necessary” under these conditions a pension reform. He regrets that this financing system weighs on the younger generations, who “will have to assume a debt in addition to their working conditions”. “It’s a gross injustice and before which the generations who benefit from it should be ashamed”is indignant François Bayrou.
Pensions: “We must regain dialogue with the social partners”
While the mobilization against the pension reform continues, the president of the MoDem believes that “it would be good at the stage we are at” that Emmanuel Macron meets the trade unions. For the centrist mayor of Pau, it is necessary “reweave the threads, we must rediscover contact and dialogue” with the unions. “It’s better if we have a scenario for the end of the crisis in mind, but in the days or weeks to come, the thread will have to be renewed with the social partners”he pleads.
Immigration law: “Now is not the time to put inflammatory texts on the table”
François Bayrou welcomes the postponement of the immigration bill, the examination of which was to begin on March 28 in public session in the Senate. The president of the modem believes that “now is not the time to put inflammatory texts on the table”while ensuring that it will be necessary to see “in a few weeks”. However, he does not call for this text carried by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin to be completely buried because, according to him, it is a “great subject of concern, questions, discomfort for the French“.
Parliamentary assistants to the MoDem: François Bayrou “certain of [son] innocence”
Referred to the criminal court in the so-called irregular employment case for MEP assistants, François Bayrou says he is “completely certain of [son] innocence or in any case of the fallacy of the accusations” which are brought against him and therefore has “not the troubled soul”. The president of the MoDem is suspected of having granted fictitious jobs to several parliamentary assistants, which he denies on franceinfo. “All this does not take a quarter of a second”, he hammers. He replies that “almost all the MEPs who were accused have been cleared and cleared”. “There is nothing in this case that is true and that can support the charges”supports François Bayrou.
——————-
Find the entire “8:30 am franceinfo” of Wednesday March 22, 2023: