FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
PARIS – Emmanuel Macron he addresses the French on TV at 8 pm to talk about “100 days of peacemaking” and a “new pact for working life”, but many have already decided not to listen to him.
In Paris, Marseilles and many other cities, as the president delivers his solemn address to unified networks, thousands of French are in the streets with pots and ladles to make a racket and cover up the promises of a new «social dialogue» which has never been seen since January and which certainly won’t start now. Dumpster fires and clashes with the police are back in place de la République in Paris.
Macron remains on his positions, his opponents too. The president on TV makes some verbal concessions, acknowledges that his pension reform, while necessary, “obviously it has not been accepted”regrets it and says that “no one, certainly not me, can remain deaf to the question of social justice” and to an “anger” attributed however to inflation, i.e. to external causes, rather than to the pension reform, i.e. it’s to himself.
Opponents remain indignant and the appeal of the “100 days” falls on deaf ears. The most responsible union leader, Laurent Berger of the CFDT, speaks of a ‘phase of decency’ in which it will be impossible to talk to the government until at least the 13th day of mobilization, 1 May. Then Berger could get back to the dialogue “for the good of the workers”but there will also be a personal antipathy between him and Macron which dates back to the days of the Hollande presidency and which has already played a role in these months of strikes.
We are now mocking the President of the Republic, the new leader of the CGT, Sophie Binet, says that “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 Melenchon judge «unreal» the presidential intervention, while on the other hand Marine Le Pen, who according to polls would win the race for the Elysée if the vote were held today (and not in four years), once again accuses Macron of “indifference and brutality”.
In fact, the head of state has neither resigned nor withdrawn a pension reform that has just been validated by the Constitutional Council and promulgated: therefore, apart from his supporters, he has disappointed everyone.
Yet Macron had been careful to choose balanced words and also to offer new fields of collaboration, if only someone was willing to listen to him.
In the “100 days” – someone points out that after Napoleon this formula does not lead very well – the president wants to launch «three major construction sites on work, justice and progress» on the basis of a roadmap that will be presented next week by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
“Four years ago, Notre-Dame had just been destroyed by fire and I promised you that in five years we would rebuild it. Everyone said “Impossible!”, but we’re doing it, because everyone wanted to,” Macron recalled. A motion of affections for now unheard.