"It was necessary, now let's look ahead". This is the summary of the message that the French president Emmanuel Macron he launched to the French citizens during his speech on TV to unified networks in which he returned to talking about the highly contested pension reformi, admitting that he "felt the anger of the French" and promoting a "new pact for life at work" that will try to improve everyone's daily life.
However, the president's words do not seem to have managed to appease spirits, with thousands of people in the streets in Paris, Marseilles and other cities, while his opponents have no intention of lowering the tone.
Macron: "I heard your anger: 3 construction sites and 100 days of peace"
La pension reform "era needed to ensure everyone's retirement and to produce more wealth for our nation,” Macron said. “Expected changes will come in in force gradually starting from the autumn“, he added, underlining that he “felt the anger of the French”. The French president acknowledged that the law, while necessary, "obviously has not been accepted. I'm sorry, no one, certainly not me, can remain deaf to the demand for social justice" and to an "anger" attributed however to inflation and not to reform: "Anger was expressed, anger at a job which, for too many French people, no longer allows them to live well, at the rise in prices, for petrol, groceries, canteens – said Macron – Anger because some feel they are doing their part , but without being rewarded for their efforts, either in aid or in effective public services, no one, and especially not me, can remain deaf to this call for social justice and the renewal of our democratic life".
However, the objective now must be to look ahead and it is with this aim that the French president has proposed “the opening of three construction sites” on work, justice and progress. On the first, Macron recalled the creation "of 1,7 million jobs in the last 6 years" and said he wanted to "launch the reform of the vocational high school so that the greatest number of our adolescents can access qualifying training and work ”. The tenant of the Elysée then anticipated his intention to launch "a new pact for life at work" with the social partners in the coming weeks.
“We have ahead of us 100 days of appeasement, unity, ambition and action in the service of France. This is our duty and I trust you. I trust us to make it happen,” she continued. “These three construction sites make up the government roadmap that Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne will detail next week. These three projects must bring us together and bring together the top leaders of the nation and I will participate in them. And July 14 will have to allow us to take stock of the situation,” concluded Macron.
The reactions of trade unions and the opposition
For the moment, unions and oppositions do not seem to have any intention of accepting the "100 days" appeal launched by the president. The number one of the CFDT union Laurent Berger, he spoke of a "phase of decency" in which it will be impossible to speak with the government until at least the 13th day of mobilization, on May 1st. Then, "for the good of the workers" a dialogue could open up. On the other hand, the new leader of the CGT does not seem to have any intention of returning to milder advice, Sophie Binet: “that speech could have been made by artificial intelligence, ChatGPT. But what planet does he live on?”. The leader of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon defined the presidential intervention as "unreal", while Marine Le Pen accused Macron of "indifference and brutality".
