World News: French President Macron Haunted by Pension Reform Law

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Tuesday, 25 April 2023 06:55

Written by Olivier Longhi

French President Emmanuel Macron, one year into his five-year second term, has marched through his social agenda effectively, and now is trying to appease a fractured country while trying to revive a struggling presidency.

By acknowledging a lack of involvement in the pension reform, is Macron admitting to weakness or is it a simple communication campaign aimed at seducing a majority of opinion from raging against the pension reform and by association Macron who force-fed a change in the pension plan? One does not prevent the other and can marry very well.

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Thus, the statements of the President of the Republic in the newspaper Le Parisien (edition of April 23, 2023) through which the Head of State acknowledges that he "perhaps should have wet himself a little more" about the pension reform could, for some, be experienced as a form of mea culpa, for others, as a provocation on the part of the executive.

But to tell the truth, if the content of the declarations has a value of their own that everyone will appreciate in the light of his convictions, they also reflect how much the malaise that crosses the country to date has been felt by the Head of State.

Politically isolated, including within his majority more than ever threatened in the National Assembly, the President of the Republic tries with these words to appease an extremely perilous political situation.

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Evidence

Because in a country now fractured, it will be very difficult for the Government to propose new reforms of such magnitude, at least affecting the daily lives of the French people as closely. And some look towards the extreme right that everyone fears to see impose itself as evidence, not political, but as a solution of rejection towards a majority that has misunderstood or misunderstood the expectations of the French.

In view of such circumstances, the President has therefore made a statement that he hopes will be understood and heard, which remains, for the time being, most hypothetical.

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For many French people, the pension reform passed by force through the application of article 49.3 was experienced as a crime of high treason, a crime that also reflects the relationship that the French maintain to work. Because in a world in perpetual change, socially and economically violent, many employees, among the most exposed and weakened to this violence, imagine their retirement as a haven of peace that nothing should be able to shorten.

To evoke a lack of involvement, understand to be pedagogical by explaining this reform, its objectives and its reasons, the President of the Republic belatedly understands how much a large majority of employees suffer by exercising their professional activity, how much some suffer more than they live their work. By evading this reality, Emmanuel Macron behaved like a narrow-minded technocrat while his function required more understanding and humanity, even if a reform was potentially necessary.

The urgency of the Elysée is therefore no longer to revive the debate that has altered an already suffering Fifth Republic but above all to appease a country psychologically exhausted by social crises (Yellow Vests), health (Covid) and economic (Inflation) that have left deep traces in a French society anguished by its future. As for the objective of relaunching a five-year term that may have run out of steam prematurely.

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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist, recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, a press and publishing consultant, and a communications consultant.