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EMMANUEL MACRON

Macron lays out ‘three pathways’ to reuniting France after pension reform protests

French president Emmanuel Macron has laid out his 'three pathways' to reunite the country as he tried to calm huge public anger over his controversial pension reforms.

Macron lays out 'three pathways' to reuniting France after pension reform protests
French President Emmanuel Macron during a televised address to the nation. Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP

Macron gave a pre-recorded speech to the nation on Monday evening, after his divisive pension reforms were signed into law over the weekend.

After repeating that he believed that the pension reforms – which include raising the pension age from 62 to 64 – were necessary because of the ageing population, he laid out the ‘three pathways’ to progress; work, justice and rule of law and social progress.

The speech consisted largely of a recap of work already done or proposals already outlined, such as creating 200 new police brigades and pledging that people with chronic illnesses would be able to register with a primary care doctor.

After saying that he had “heard the anger of the French people”, Macron asked the country to “pull together” to reunite and rebuild, saying that he wanted to “outline the big project” for the country.

  • On work, after recapping some of his government’s achievements in cutting unemployment and making France the most attractive country in Europe for foreign investment, Macron said he wanted to accelerate the ‘re-industrialisation’ of the country, particularly in regard to green technologies.
  • On justice the rule of law, he repeated his pledge to recruit more police officers and magistrates and said the next projects would be preventing illegal immigration and combating criminality. 
  • On social progress, he said that teachers were now better paid, children were doing more sport in school and the government was working on a pledge to immediately replace teachers who are absent from the classroom. He repeated a pledge that 600,000 people with chronic illnesses will be registered with a doctor by the end of the year

He added that the prime minister and ministers will lay out more detail of the proposals next week, before a “first assessment’ of the roadmap by July 14th, France’s national day.

Around Paris, protesters had gathered for ‘concerts de casseroles‘ – or concerts of banging saucepans – during his speech, which at just 13 minutes long was close to a record of brevity for Macron.

The speech had been billed as an attempt by Macron to calm public anger over pension reform, and move on to the next priorities for this government. 

The pension reform – the subject of months of strikes and protests – was signed into law over the weekend, after having most sections approved by the Constitutional Council on Friday. The government aims for it to become law by September and for the pension age to be gradually raised from 62 to 64 by 2030.

The president added he “regretted” no consensus could be found on the reform and understood the “anger” felt by the French.

“Has this reform been accepted? Obviously not. And despite months of consultations, no consensus could be found and I regret it.”

Noting the protests that have raged against the reform, he added: “No one, especially not me, can remain deaf to this demand for social justice.”

“The answer can be neither in rigidity, nor in extremism,” said the president, adding his “door will always be open” to talks with the unions.

Unions and leftist opposition figures are determined to continue the battle and have called for people to take to the streets to show their anger on May 1st, traditionally a day of demos and marches in France.

Strike calendar: Dates to know in the ongoing French pension reform battle

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ELECTIONS

Will Macron resign in case of a French election disaster?

The polling is not looking good for president Emmanuel Macron's party in the snap elections that he called just two weeks ago. So will he resign if it all goes wrong?

Will Macron resign in case of a French election disaster?

On Sunday, June 9th, the French president stunned Europe when he called snap parliamentary elections in France, in the wake of humiliating results for his centrist group in the European elections.

The French president has the power to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections – but this power is rarely used and in recent decades French parliaments have run on fixed terms. Very few people predicted Macron’s move.

But polling for the fresh elections (held over two rounds on June 30th and July 7th) is looking very bad for the president’s centrist Renaissance party – currently trailing third behind Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National and the combined leftist group Nouveau Front Populaire.

Listen to the team from The Local discussing all the election latest in the new episode of the Talking France podcast. Download here or listen on the link below

The election was a gamble for Macron – but if his gamble fails will he resign?

What does the law and the constitution say?

Legally, Macron does not need to resign. In France the presidential and the parliamentary elections are separate – Macron himself was re-elected in 2022 with a five-year mandate (until May 2027).

His party failing to gain a parliamentary majority does not change that – in fact the centrists failed to gain a overall majority in the 2022 parliamentary elections too (although they remained the largest party). Since then, the government has limped on, managing to pass some legislation by using constitutional powers.

The constitution also offers no compulsion or even a suggestion that the president should resign if he fails to form a government.

In fact the current constitution (France has had five) gives a significant amount of power to the president at the expense of parliament – the president has the power to dissolve parliament (as Macron has demonstrated), to set policy on areas including defence and diplomacy and to bypass parliament entirely and force through legislation (through the tool known as Article 49.3). 

In fact there are only three reasons in the constitution that a president would finish their term of office early; resigning, dying in office or being the subject of impeachment proceedings.

Since 1958, only one president has resigned – Charles de Gaulle quit in 1969 after the failure of a referendum that he had backed. He died 18 months later, at the age of 79.  

OK, but is he likely to resign?

He says not. In an open letter to the French people published over the weekend, Macron wrote: “You can trust me to act until May 2027 as your president, protector at every moment of our republic, our values, respectful of pluralism and your choices, at your service and that of the nation.”

He insisted that the coming vote was “neither a presidential election, nor a vote of confidence in the president of the republic” but a response to “a single question: who should govern France?”

So it looks likely that Macron will stay put.

And he wouldn’t be the first French president to continue in office despite his party having failed to win a parliamentary majority – presidents François Mitterand and Jacques Chirac both served part of their term in office in a ‘cohabitation‘ – the term for when the president is forced to appoint an opposition politician as prime minister.

But should he resign?

The choice to call the snap elections was Macron’s decision, it seems he took the decision after discussing it just a few close advisers and it surprised and/or infuriated even senior people in his own party.

If the poll leads to political chaos then, many will blame Macron personally and there will be many people calling for his resignation (although that’s hardly new – Macron démission has been a regular cry from political opponents over the last seven years as he enacted policies that they didn’t like).

Regardless of the morality of dealing with the fallout of your own errors, there is also the practicality – if current polling is to be believed, none of the parties are set to achieve an overall majority and the likely result with be an extremely protracted and messy stalemate with unstable governments, fragile coalitions and caretaker prime ministers. It might make sense to have some stability at the top, even if that figure is extremely personally unpopular.

He may leave the country immediately after the result of the second round, however. Washington is hosting a NATO summit on July 9th-11th and a French president would normally attend that as a representative of a key NATO member. 

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