It will ultimately be a “youth engagement contract”. Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday, November 2 the creation of an allowance of up to 500 euros for young people aged 18 to 25 years away from employment in exchange for 15 to 20 hours per week of training or support. “At least 400,000 young people will be supported in 2022”, according to the Prime Minister, Jean Castex. In the Assembly, this announcement is considered insufficient, as much on the left as on the right.
“It is a simple measure: commitment, attendance, motivation and a state that supports you”, assures Emmanuel Macron on his Facebook page. Eric Coquerel, deputy La France Insoumise, considers that this contract will not solve the problem that has become recurrent among young people who queue for food parcels. “They will continue to queue and fortunately there are associations, collectives that help them because it is not the state that does it”, he judges. According to him, “There will be nothing changed compared to the current situation. I don’t know if people realize that we have a President of the Republic who makes announcements and in the end, there is nothing . “
Among environmentalists, we are talking about an assumed right-wing policy. Mathieu Orphelin, spokesperson for Yannick Jadot, presidential candidate who defends him an income from existence. “It shows that Emmanuel Macron’s priority is not to help precarious young people. His priority is to reinforce this received idea which says that the more we help young people, the longer they stay in the assistantship”, he believes.
The right also finds this contract unconvincing. Pierre-Henri Dumont, deputy LR, underlines that the conditions of attribution are not sufficient. “We are not asking for an obligation to succeed, for example. It’s just a question of attendance. In the end, we realize that what he is doing is spending the money of the French to secure his re-election “, according to the deputy of Pas-de-Calais. “The measure is only valid in 2022, deplores Xavier Bertrand. We have a president who doesn’t care about the long term, he campaigns with France’s checkbook every day and that’s unbearable. “It’s one more check, with no funds at this stage”, also criticized LR boss Christian Jacob
“It is electoral patronage, it is extremely contemptuous for the French and there, in this case, for young people”, adds Nicolas Bay, MEP of the National Rally on Tuesday on franceinfo. According to him, Emmanuel Macron “try to make believe that he keeps his promises a little because we are coming to the end and he will have to present the results”. “All this is quite pitiful and it reveals not a vision for the country, at ten, fifteen or twenty years, but a desire to ensure that the various electoral clienteles are not too hostile to it before the deadline. next April. “
Not up to the stakes for the left, purely electoral and assistantship on the right: the measure is unanimous against it in the opposition of the Assembly.