French President Emmanuel Macron warned his fellow citizens on Wednesday that the coming months will be difficult, referring to “the end of abundance”, before a return to school which could be eventful, the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine making itself felt.
After a first term, from 2017 to 2022, with an environmental record deemed insufficient by many ecologists, NGOs and experts, Mr. Macron estimated on Wednesday that “what we are experiencing is rather order of a great shift or a great upheaval”, during a speech in front of his ministers broadcast on television.
Citing the effects of the war in Ukraine, which began six months ago to the day, and the climate crisis, he highlighted “the end of abundance”, whether it be “cash”, “products of technology”, raw materials or water.
Production chains disrupted by the pandemic, inflation boosted by the rise in energy and food prices due to the war in Ukraine, rise in interest rates which increases the cost of credit… French households are under pressure, and the horizon does not promise any improvement.
Worse, the prospect of an explosion in energy prices during the winter risks limiting their ability to heat up, and the government’s budgetary margins to help them do so are reduced by the expenses incurred to cushion the impact of the Covid-19.
The French are also coming out of a summer period marked by a historic heat wave and drought, revealing the effect of global warming.
The time is now for “general mobilization”, according to the president’s entourage, who had assured during the campaign that “the policy he would pursue in the next five years will be ecological or will not be”. With a watchword, “energy sobriety”, which will have to be the subject of a bill to accelerate renewable energies.
People’s reaction?
Faced with this change in environmental paradigm, and while France remembers the social movement of the Yellow Vests, a melting pot of anger among part of the population, Emmanuel Macron, stressing that his “compatriots can react with great anxiety”, called on his government to “respect the word given and the commitments” made.
“The discontent is there”, warned Monday on France Inter radio the economist Philippe Moati, noting that according to a poll by his Obsoco institute in June, the share of French people who support the yellow vests has risen to 60%, or as much as at the height of the mobilization, in February 2019.
“We can no longer be on an optimistic discourse at all. The French state of mind is very different ”, abounded with AFP Jean-Daniel Lévy, deputy director of the Harris Interactive France institute.
In this context, the left opposition and unions have criticized the statements of the president, largely re-elected against the far right in April, but deprived of an absolute majority in the National Assembly in June.
“It’s an offbeat message. When we talk about the end of abundance, I think of the millions of unemployed, the millions of precarious people, ”reacted the boss of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) union, Philippe Martinez, on the BFMTV news channel.
Several organizations have called for a strike and mobilization for September 29.
“No, but we are dreaming! As if the French had run out of worries and had stuffed themselves too much, “said the secretary general of the French Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, on Twitter.
“When you are in a country where there are nine million poor […]to hear such a thing, it’s incredible, ”added the leader of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
While some major European countries, such as Italy and Spain, will have general elections soon, Emmanuel Macron also warned against “the end of the obvious”, such as “democracy, human rights “.
Western liberal democratic rule seems to be eroding in the face of illiberal models and certain political movements in their own populations.
Finally, the French president mentioned the cyber threat in a context where attacks are increasing and could increase further this fall, according to some observers.