A vermilion red origami rooster accented his dark collar. Brooch pinned to the jacket, Emmanuel Macron celebrated ten years of the “French Tech” label, Monday, February 20, in front of an audience of investors and business leaders, in the village hall of the Elysée. “I fully accept” the metaphor of “first in line”, launched the former investment banker, bravado, reviving his accents praising success and innovation. Three days after the twelve strokes of midnight which sounded the end of stormy debates in the National Assembly, the Head of State has again kept his distance from the pension reform, which is continuing its way in Parliament and threatens to freeze the country. “The rest of the economic and social life of the nation does not stop”slips Jean-Noël Barrot, minister responsible for the digital transition.
However, the government is anxiously awaiting the “blocking” announced by all the unions on March 7, accompanied by possible renewable strikes. The parliamentary break, before the text arrives in the Senate on March 2, offers a narrow window for the executive to address other issues. In the hope, blows a relative of the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, of “trivializing pension reform”.
Also the President of the Republic, who officially stood back from the file by devoting himself to international politics – in Munich, on February 17, for a conference on security, in Central Africa next week -, he reappears on the national scene, this time to talk about work.
Calls to start new projects as soon as possible
Emmanuel Macron went to the Rungis market (Val-de-Marne), Tuesday at dawn, where he wanted to talk “to the French who work early”, we insisted the day before at the Elysée. During this morning visit, the president assured to recover “in the common sense of the French” and maintained that it takes “work a little longer”. Returning to his campaign speech, he presented the increase in the retirement age to 64 as a lever for financing transitions. “This reform makes it possible to create more wealth for the country” et “to finance the school, the health”he pleaded with the butchers, in the meat pavilions.
Without going so far as to repeat the criticism of ” the laziness “ employed by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, nor that of “idleness” taken over by his Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, Emmanuel Macron has multiplied the nods to “the France that gets up early”Nicolas Sarkozy’s slogan addressed to the middle and working classes in 2007. He insisted that “it is through work that we build the strength of a nation” and that’“there is no social model that holds unless we create more wealth”. The head of state is also expected to stroll through the Agricultural Show on Saturday, after having cut short his visit last year in the wake of the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
You have 55.09% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.