The Head of State may well have welcomed measures on Twitter “in responsibility, by building compromises as the French wished” and his Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire announce “a political victory”the birth was painful.
Purchasing power, a major subject of the presidential campaign, was the key to entering this second five-year term with an unprecedented scenario. A sort of dress rehearsal for the next five years. In the end, the very relative majority was only able to pass its texts with the support of the Republicans, who proclaim themselves to be “the only useful opposition to the French”, while wondering if they will not end up absorbed by the Macronie. The National Rally abstained, so as not to cause misunderstanding among its voters while pursuing its quest for respectability. La Nupes meanwhile, which practices the permanent blow of splinters, ends up empty-handed: no minimum wage at € 1,500, no big night and a vote against the measures put on the table, which will have to be justified on return in constituency.
It is no longer possible to legislate as in the past: you brought your well-crafted reform to Parliament, and the absolute majority did the rest, with 49-3 if necessary. That was the old world, which will have lasted long after 2017. The parliamentary battle over purchasing power requires a change of method. Witness Gérald Darmanin’s immigration bill, initially scheduled for October, which will be preceded by two months of debate. The ambitious Minister of the Interior will have to wait.
Emmanuel Macron is in the process, constrained and forced, of sketching out a new world. The president can no longer govern by stepping over Parliament and the intermediate bodies, which he had been accused of. To reform, he must now demine, debate, even amend the texts, beyond his own political family, this is the great novelty.
Emmanuel Macron now intends to write his new story, imposed by circumstances: the first chapter will be the installation in September of his National Council for Refoundation, viewed with suspicion by the social partners. An “unidentified political object” which is intended to set the tone for the start of the school year.