Paris (EFE) an offer that unions and opposition received with great skepticism.
In his first televised message to the nation since the beginning of the political and social crisis last January, Macron insisted that the changes approved by his government were the only possible response to the progressive increase in the number of retirees and life expectancy. .
“Has this law been accepted? “Obviously not,” he admitted. Despite months of consultations, a consensus could not be found and I am sorry.
Macron also admitted that there is “anger”, in a context of jobs that do not allow them to cope with the rising cost of living and that there are citizens who “have the impression of doing their part” and “not being rewarded”.
This “demand for social justice and renewal of democratic life” must be heard, he said, noting that “the answer cannot lie in immobility or extremism.”
Proposal for a “social pact”
For this reason, he proposed the new “social pact” together with businessmen and unions, to discuss “without limits or taboos” a series of “essential issues” among which he mentioned wages, the improvement of working conditions and the distribution of wealth. .
“The door will always be open,” said the head of state, despite the fact that in the last three months the Elysee refused to receive the unions. They directly rejected the delay in the minimum retirement age, the central and immovable axis of the reform for the Government.
In his long-awaited speech, which lasted just 13 minutes, Macron set a 100-day deadline to calm down the country, just in time for the national holiday of July 14, and set a road map for his government.
With it, he made a plea for the conquest of a French “independence” based on work and reindustrialization, but he also promised a battery of actions to fight the climate crisis before the summer.
Among the major areas of work for his government, he mentioned improving justice and citizen participation to strengthen trust in institutions. He also promised initiatives to ensure that everyone “is certain that our children will live better”, with an emphasis on health and education.
popular casseroles
Thousands of French refused to follow the presidential intervention and took to the streets, pan in hand, to make noise.
Throughout the country, hundreds of “pot concerts” had been called simultaneously to the speech to endorse the social opposition to the pension reform and the attitude of the Government.
“Here we cut off the heads of kings,” read one of the posters of the cacelorada convened in the 20th district of Paris today.
“No one here has listened to Macron’s speech, because Macron does not listen to the people,” leftist deputy Danielle Simonnet told EFE there, amid deafening noise.
These concentrations became impromptu demonstrations in some places, such as Paris, where incidents such as container burning took place.
Union Skepticism
The unions, for their part, received the president’s speech with skepticism and recalled that Macron kept the door closed despite the organizations’ requests to be received.
“The regrets are not really going to change much for the workers, who are going to have to work for two more years, because unfortunately the reform has been enacted,” said union leader Laurent Berger, of the majority CFDT, in statements to the channel BFM.
For Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT, the second largest union in the country, “the problem is that (Macron) reaches out to us after having cut our sleeves”
The left-wing opposition and the extreme right also questioned the good will of the presidential speech.
The founder of the leftist La Francia Insumisa party, Jean Luc Mélenchon, considered that Macron is “completely out of touch with reality and assumes the theft of two years of freedom.”
“Casseroles sound fairer,” he said.
For the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, Macron lives “in a parallel world”, since instead of recovering the link with the population today by withdrawing the reform or announcing a referendum, he once again chose to “turn his back on it”.
The next big demonstration is scheduled for May 1, despite the fact that the reform law has already been promulgated.
By Nerea González