To understand the crisis that has been tearing France apart since the beginning of February, you have to look at the very person of Emmanuel Macron, who is obstructing the pension reform he has decreed.
On the left, the president is described as “contemptuous”, living “outside all reality”, and on the right as “dangerous”, “irresponsible” and his reform as “a big mess”. Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne felt the need to contradict her leader by calling for “not to rush things” and to observe “a period of convalescence”, while the deputy Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Gaullist and supporter of order, referred to the impeachment of the president.
And yet Macron does not give up anything. In a solemn address delivered on Monday evening, he devoted barely three minutes to his pension reform and the crisis it triggered and which has lasted for three months. He especially insisted on his will to carry out new reforms, in particular as regards work, which lets predict other conflicts.
Just as it is used to strikes and demonstrations, France has a long tradition of presidents who have distinguished themselves by their arrogance. Think of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, nicknamed “VGE the monarch”, of François Mitterrand, a past master in the art of ridiculing his adversaries (of Jacques Chirac who recalled during the 1988 presidential debate that Mitterrand was no longer president nor he was prime minister, Mitterrand replied with a smirk: “But you are absolutely right, Prime Minister!”), and to Nicolas Sarkozy who, during a dinner with parliamentarians in 2009 , managed the feat of insulting three heads of state: Barack Obama (whom he considered too “weak”), Angela Merkel (who took too long to “understand”) and José Luis Zapatero (“not very intelligent “)1.
But Emmanuel Macron seems in a separate category. For us who are used to Justin Trudeau’s apologies and his contrite tone, the contrast is stark.
Since entering politics, Macron has multiplied contemptuous formulas.
He described opponents of his reform plans as “lazy”, “cynic” and “Gauls resistant to change”. To a teenager who complained of running out of money, the president, dressed in a suit at 1600 euros, replied: “the best way to afford a suit is to work”. To an unemployed man who said he was unable to find work, he retorted: “I cross the street and find you some”2.
Macron’s recent interventions on the international scene have hardly been happier. During a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in March, he allowed himself to lecture President Tshisekedi, in a condescending and paternalistic tone reminiscent of the era of colonization3a mix of Tintin in the Congo and D’OSS 117 in the words of one MP. And last week, at the end of a meeting with Xi Jinping, Macron managed to upset all his allies by claiming a third way between East and West, between China and the United States.4. It is not de Gaulle who wants.
But who is Emmanuel Macron?
Nicknamed the “Mozart of finance” because of his exploits as a banker at Rothschild (he notably piloted a 9 billion euro transaction between Nestlé and Pfizer), Macron is a supporter of deregulation and market liberalization. He aims to make France a “start-up nation”, as he said in 2017 – in English – in front of an audience of French business people: “I want France to be a start-up nation. Which means a nation that works with and for start-ups, but also a nation that thinks and moves like a start-up. In the old station where he gave his speech, he had added this: “A station is a place where you meet people who are successful and those who are nothing. »
Obviously, this new pension reform, the seventh in 30 years and Macron’s second, carried out against a backdrop of galloping inflation, does not pass, both in manner and in substance.
The raising of the retirement age from 62 to 64 is the latest in a series of restrictive measures adopted over the years, which have increased the period of contribution for full retirement to 43 years, revised the calculation of the annuity on the basis of the 25 best years of salary, eliminated relaxations for difficult jobs, raised the age of the full rate to 67 years, changes which are likely to make workers particularly suffer (of whom only 70% are still alive at age 64, compared to 96% of managers)5. Moreover, the French of the working classes – which perhaps count in the eyes of President Macron among these “people who are nothing” – are turning massively to Marine Le Pen, who would become president at 55% -45% if an election presidential was today6.
As Macron cannot run for a third term, such results are pure speculation. But they do say something about the feeling of the French about this president who is increasingly alien to his own people, a kind of European-style Wall Street wolf, who could soon become – like François Hollande before him – a “lame duck”. “.
3. Regarding the war that is tearing the country apart, torn between the mining interests of foreigners and locals, Macron had these words: “Since 1994, it is not France’s fault, sorry to say so in in such crude terms, you have not been able to restore the sovereignty, neither military, nor security, nor administrative of your country. It is also a reality. We must not look for culprits outside in this affair. ” To which President Félix Tshisekedi replied: “You see, this is precisely what must change in our relations with France in particular and Europe in general, with the West. Your way of seeing things when they happen in Africa. »