Macron hopes to leave behind the social convulsions in a “rentrée” with the Olympic Games in the background

2023-08-26 12:33:42

Macron begins the political course by inviting the leaders of the political formations to a meeting next Wednesday. The visits of Carlos III and Francisco will mark the beginning of a season that will culminate with the Olympic Games. in Paris next summer and with which the French president will try to turn the page on the social convulsions experienced at the start of his second five-year term

First modification: 08/26/2023 – 12:33

4 min

Leaving behind the social convulsions of the past year and starting the “rentrée” with our eyes on the great events that France is about to experience: Rugby World Cup, reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral and above all, the 2024 Paris Olympics. The President Macron hopes to turn the page and establish a new roadmap for the remainder of the second five-year period based on the great showcase that this new season full of events offers. But despite this, the French president knows that his problems in governing France persist without a parliamentary majority and with the threat of paralysis. A weakness that became apparent in the number of times that the Executive of its Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, had to resort to decrees to get texts forward since this second five-year period was launched. “I am confident in our ability to converge” Macron said this Saturday in a letter sent to the leaders of the political formations, in the starting gun of the political course. gesture of hand outstretched to the opposition with an invitation included to a working day and a dinner next Wednesday, aware that parliamentary weakness forces the president to build bridges. There is no other. With renewed confidence, at least for now, in his disputed relationship with Borne, Macron wants to control the timing of the agenda again once his controversial pension reform starts on September 1 and his response on the street seems amortized. But amortized is not turned off and simmering discontent could reignite at any point in the calendar leading up to the Olympics.

Macron promised just at the beginning of the summer “provide insightful responses to the riots” that were experienced for a week between the end of June and the beginning of July in French municipalities in the impoverished suburbs due to the shooting death by the police of a 17-year-old boy when he tried to escape from a control in the town of Nanterre. A crisis that once again highlighted “the risk of fragmentation and division” as the French president said at the time. And above all, they show structural problems of French society that are not resolved and represent a time bomb that can go off again at any time if these issues are not addressed in depth.

The visits of Francisco and Carlos III, first dates

Two big visits mark the calendar in September for Macron. The first, that of King Charles III of England, was precisely annulled by the moments of convulsion that France experienced last spring. King Carlos III and his wife Queen Camila will make their postponed visit to France from September 20 to 22, Buckingham Palace announced last Thursday. Carlos III has officially visited France 34 times, but this will be the first time he has done so since his coronation. It will be the ninth visit of his wife Camila. The trip, with stops planned in Paris and Bordeaux, will serve as testimony to “the depth of the historic ties that unite our two countries and our peoples,” the French presidency estimated.

That same week, coinciding with the end of the visit of Carlos III, that of the Pope Francis to Marseille. The program published by the Vatican indicates that the pontiff will meet with the French president on September 22, and the following day he plans to celebrate a massive mass at the Velodrome stadium in Marseille. The previous visit by a pope to France dates back to 2008, with Benedict XVI, predecessor of the Argentine pontiff.

The Niger crisis marks the summer

The summer that is ending has been marked by another crisis again in the Sahel. Macron closely follows everything that is happening in Niger. The military regime that took power on July 26 ordered the French ambassador to leave the country within 48 hours this Friday, the African country’s foreign ministry announced in a statement. The French Foreign Ministry responded that “The coup leaders do not have the authority to make this request” and that “the permission of the ambassador depends only on the elected legitimate Nigerien authorities”.

Anti-French statements and demonstrations have multiplied in the country since the overthrow of democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum. The new regime accuses the former colonial power of preparing a military intervention to return Bazoum to power and of pulling the strings of the Economic Community of West African States (Cedeao), which is increasing pressure on Niamey.

Some 1,500 French soldiers are deployed in Niger as part of the fight against jihadist groups that have been operating in the Sahel region for years.

(With AFP, Reuters and French media)