“There is no 48 hour ultimatum“from Emmanuel Macron to the opposition, assured Olivia Grégoire, government spokesperson, Thursday June 23 on franceinfo. Wednesday evening, in a speech, the President of the Republic called on the opposition to “clarify” the way of “building compromises” to resolve the political crisis arising from the legislative elections.
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In his speech, the Head of State urged the political groups to say “in full transparency, how far they are willing to go”, adding that “as soon as he comes back” Friday of the European Council, in Brussels, “in the light of the first choices, the first expressions of the political groups of our National Assembly, we will begin to build this method and this new configuration”.
Which, for Olivia Grégoire, is “anything but an ultimatum”. “It’s not: I’m waiting for your copies when I get back on Friday evening. When he comes back from the European Council, in 48 hours, we’ll start building, it’s the beginning of the journey, it’s not the end“, she insisted. “The ultimatum is the end. There it opens the start of negotiations, the start of consensus and compromise. We are talking about several days, maybe even several weeks and certainly not 48 hours.”
Speech by E. Macron ➡️ “He is waiting to find out what the red lines of the oppositions are. I want to be very clear: there is no ultimatum or 48-hour question,” said government spokeswoman Olivia Grégoire. “He opened the beginning of compromises.” pic.twitter.com/M6dVPxKtWH
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) June 23, 2022
Olivia Grégoire specifies that Emmanuel Macron “will possibly see the presidents of the political forces again and he will discuss with them by being attentive to find out what falls under red lines, what falls under lines that we could discuss”. It also indicates that “the President of the Republic extends his hand to all those who want to move the country forwards”, but sets limits to this “hand held out”. “There is not a single second, at a single moment, the idea of seeking votes, agreements, with the National Rally“, or coalition with La France insoumise: “It’s not on the agenda either.“
“There are other types of opposition than the RN and Nupes. I have no doubt, and I want to believe it for the Nupes movement, that everyone wants to move the country forward. I have no doubt that ‘there is goodwill, perhaps in Nupes too,’ says Olivia Grégoire. pic.twitter.com/LLLY1T5fnF
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) June 23, 2022
Olivia Grégoire ensures that the executive is open to discussion on these “red lines”. “There is the subject of purchasing power, there is for example the indexation rate for pensions, the index rate for civil servants, the Macron bonus, the tariff shield, the blocking of energy prices” , she listed. While the opposition is demanding a revaluation of pensions, Olivia Grégoire recalls that they were automatically revalued by just over 1% in January. To get closer to inflation, which exceeded 5% over one year in May, the government intends to increase them by 4%. “It can be more, it will be one of the things that are discussed”, she advanced.
However, the government spokesperson sets limits to the discussion: “We do not evolve above ground when we make a law or policy, there are constraints and there is a financial and economic reality. We will see in a few weeks what the state of the country is in terms of inflation, in terms of rate hikes, in terms of deficit, debt”. If the objections “are aware of it, they will have to integrate it, in responsibility”.
“Between declaiming proposals on TV sets and bringing them into reality in Parliament, taking into account an economic trajectory which is a trajectory of reality, we will also see how Olivier Faure [le premier secrétaire du Parti socialiste] and how the Insoumis position themselves”.