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‘Agitated season’ – 7 things Macron must deal with in France this autumn

After the traditional summer break the French government resumes work this week, and president Emmanuel Macron has a lot on his plate - here are the big issues that France faces this autumn.

'Agitated season' - 7 things Macron must deal with in France this autumn
French President Emmanuel Macron face a number of tough challenges as parliament resumes. Photo by ERIC GAILLARD / POOL / AFP

The president has enjoyed a ‘studious break’ on on the Riviera at Fort Brégançon, the official holiday home of French presidents, but this week marks la rentrée (the return to work) and the first meeting of the cabinet.

Here are some of the big issues that Macron and his government must tackle in the weeks to come.

Parliamentary alliances

In the June elections Macron’s party LREM lost its absolute majority in parliament and in the weeks that followed attempts to build a coalition failed.

EXPLAINED Who are France’s political parties? 

Macron and his PM Elisabeth Borne announced that they will continue with their legislative programme, building alliances on a vote-by-vote basis.

Before parliament ended for the summer session they got some measures passed, including a €65 billion package of financial aid to deal with the cost of living. However these were measures that had broad cross-party support, unlike some of the issues expected to be on the agenda in the autumn.

The lack of a parliamentary majority means that each of Macron’s planned reforms will be, at the very least, subject to long debates and many amendments and could be outright defeated in the Assemblée nationale.

Elections?

The next scheduled elections in France are not until 2024 (European elections), but if the above-mentioned parliamentary deadlock proves to be insurmountable, the president has the option of calling new elections in order to try and obtain a working majority.

Constitutional experts are split on whether Macron is able to call an election at any time or whether he has to wait a year (until June 2023).

Even those who believe he can call an election at any time say this would be unlikely to happen before the end of this year. 

READ ALSO Can Macron dissolve the French parliament?

Cost of living

The number one issue for most people in France remains inflation and the cost of living, despite that €65-billion aid package.

Macron used a World War II commemoration event last week to say that increasing costs linked to sanctions on Russia are “the price we pay for freedom”.

He reaffirmed his total commitment to the people of Ukraine – but while a majority in France supports efforts against Russian aggression, the mood may change when people are hit in the pocket.  

The hard-left La France Insoumise and the far-right Rassemblement National parties – both of which have a history of supporting Putin – have called for EU sanctions against Russia to be lifted, saying they are ineffective and hurt consumers in Europe. 

Many in France predict street protests over the autumn and winter, connected to cost-of-living issues.

Ukraine

Linked to the cost-of-living crisis is the ongoing war in Ukraine and the EU’s response to it.

Macron has been heavily involved in both direct diplomacy – continuing to have phone conversations with Vladimir Putin at the request of Ukraine’s president Volodymr Zelensky – and measures taken at an EU level.

Although there are proposals to increase the EU’s sanctions package against Russia, as the war continues it is possible that it will be more difficult to find agreement from all 27 countries on the way forward.

Climate crisis

After a summer marked by scorching heatwaves, fatal storms and the worst drought in 60 years, the climate crisis is at the forefront of people’s minds.

In the reshuffle that followed his re-election in April, Macron expanded the environment portfolio by having two minsters with responsibility for environmental matters, while the climate crisis was also officially added to the portfolio of the Prime Minister. 

The three ministers – PM Elisabeth Borne plus Christophe Béchu, Minister for ecological transition, and Agnès Pannier-Runacher, minister for energy transition – now need to come up with a full policy to ‘transition’ France’s society and economy to deal with the climate crisis, while ensuring that the cost burden doesn’t disproportionately fall on those on the lowest incomes.

Macron has reportedly asked Borne to have a strategy ready for publication by early autumn, laying out both short-term and long-term plans.

Ahead of the government’s return, the Transport minister Clément Beaune said that he would like to regulate the use of private jets, while Macron advisers have told the French press that the new political agenda “will be very green”.

Pension reform 

Macron’s first term as president saw the longest sustained period of strikes since 1968 over his proposals to reform the pension system. He did eventually manage to get his reforms passed in early 2022, but in the end they were never implemented because of the pandemic.

The initial reform streamlined and simplified the French pension system and did away with many of the ‘special regimes’ that allowed people to retire early, but left the standard pension age at 62. 

In a brave move, Macron included in his April re-election campaign a pledge to increase the standard pension age from 62 to 65. He won re-election, but it’s fair to say that his pension proposal has not been greeted with joy.

Even back in 2020 – when Macron’s party had a substantial majority in parliament – he had to resort to a technical measure known as Article 49.3 in order to push the first tranche of pension reforms through. This time, it’s likely to be more difficult.

Also set for a return to the political agenda is the subject of reforms of the unemployment system – some changes were made during Macron’s first term which provoked strikes in industries, including the ski industry.

Immigration bill

Interior minister Gérald Darmanin is planning to put before parliament a new Immigration bill that is also likely to be contentious.

It includes a proposal to make language tests compulsory for foreigners in France who want a long-term carte de séjour residency card, as well as a package of other immigration measures that all have the overall effect of making immigration rules stricter.

Although his bill is likely to be popular with the centre-right and far-right, it has already raised eyebrows among the centre-left and leftist groups in parliament, although at this stage very little detail of the proposals have been revealed. 

The phrases most often used in the French press to describe the new parliamentary session are une rentrée agitée and une rentrée chargée. We think that roughly translates as ‘expect fireworks’. 

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POLITICS

French parliament backs bill against hair discrimination affecting black women

France's lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a bill forbidding workplace discrimination based on hair texture, which the draft law's backers say targets mostly black women wearing their hair naturally.

French parliament backs bill against hair discrimination affecting black women

Olivier Serva, an independent National Assembly deputy for the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe and the bill’s sponsor, said it would penalise any workplace discrimination based on “hair style, colour, length or texture”.

Similar laws exist in around 20 US states which have identified hair discrimination as an expression of racism.

In Britain, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has issued guidelines against hair discrimination in schools.

Serva, who is black, said women “of African descent” were often encouraged before job interviews to change their style of hair. Backers also say that men who wear their hair in styles like dreadlocks are also affected.

The bill was approved in the lower house National Assembly with 44 votes in favour and two against. It will now head to the upper Senate where the right has the majority and the vote’s outcome is much less certain.

‘Target of discrimination’

Serva, who also included discrimination suffered by blondes and redheads in his proposal, points to an American study stating that a quarter of black women polled said they had been ruled out for jobs because of how they wore their hair at the job interview.

Such statistics are hard to come by in France, which bans the compilation of personal data that mention a person’s race or ethnic background on the basis of the French Republic’s “universalist” principles.

The draft law does not, in fact, contain the term “racism”, noted Daphne Bedinade, a social anthropologist, saying the omission was problematic.

“To make this only about hair discrimination is to mask the problems of people whose hair makes them a target of discrimination, mostly black women,” she told Le Monde daily.

A black Air France air crew member in 2022 won a 10-year legal battle for the right to work with braided hair on flights after a decision by France’s highest appeals court.

While statistics are difficult to come by, high-profile people have faced online harassment because of their hairstyle.

In the political sphere they include former government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye, and Audrey Pulvar, a deputy mayor of Paris, whose afro look has attracted much negative comment online.

The bill’s critics say it is unnecessary, as discrimination based on looks is already banned by law.

“There is no legal void here,” said Eric Rocheblave, a lawyer specialising in labour law.

Calling any future law “symbolic”, Rocheblave said it would not be of much practical help when it came to proving discrimination in court.

Kenza Bel Kenadil, an influencer and self-proclaimed “activist against hair discrimination”, said a law would still send an important message.

“It would tell everybody that the law protects you in every way and lets you style your hair any way you want,” she said.

The influencer, who has 256,000 followers on Instagram, said she herself had been “forced” to tie her hair in a bun when she was working as a receptionist.

Her employers were “very clear”, she said. “It was, either you go home and fix your hair or you don’t come here to work”.

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