French political life has long given way to the fantasy of the hundred days. Souvenir of a distant cavalcade – the return to power of Napoleon Iis in 1815 before his second abdication – this unwritten rule would require a head of state to take advantage of his first three months to profoundly transform the country and launch structuring projects. Re-elected after a sluggish campaign which did not offer him a state of grace, hampered by a relative majority, Emmanuel Macron prefers to bet on the ” next day “.
In the midst of the tumult over the pension reform, those close to the President of the Republic send the message that after the adoption of this disputed bill, a new period will open, that of a refoundation of France “to prepare it for the challenges of the 21ste century “, in the words of these advisers. A projection into the future which allows it both to step over the pension reform and to give a little more clarity to its second five-year term. “The urgency should not make us forget the long term. Our responsibility is to prepare the future of our country”underlined Elisabeth Borne, during her wishes to the press, on January 23.
As the months go by, the Elysée is thus trying to weave a “red thread” to this still somewhat vague mandate where the Head of State does not have total control of the agenda. In the heart of the summer of 2022, Emmanuel Macron would have liked to get rid of the unpopular pension reform more quickly. He had to deal with the urgency of inflation and spend the long weeks of the fall pondering parliamentary tactics. And, so as not to remain in the imagination of the French as a manager of crises and financial balances, he is relaunching, quietly for the moment, his more ambitious ideas. “As for us, let us be this generation of builders”he had declared during his wishes, on December 31, 2022. Very agreed words that his communicator Frédéric Michel had nevertheless taken care to underline with the advisers of the executive.
Broaden the debate
His relatives therefore sum up the rest of the five-year term in several immense projects: health, national education, the renovation of public services, ecological transition and the reform of institutions. Several meetings took place at the Elysée at the beginning of the year on the first two themes, the most advanced files of the National Council for Refoundation. While he fears to see Marine Le Pen succeed him, the Head of State would like to leave a France more “serene” upon his departure by attempting to reduce democratic distrust by strengthening the “popular sovereignty”, according to an expression used in private by Mr. Macron. These projects still seem rather nebulous, the President of the Republic not wanting to close any door, while his entourage put forward several avenues on the institutions: a new form of decentralization by removing a level of communities, the proportional and the reduction of the number of parliamentarians , and above all the need for democratic breathing during a five-year term. This may mean decoupling the legislative elections from the presidential election, and fueling rumors about a possible dissolution of the National Assembly.
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