For the second time in two weeks, the Head of State will be the guest of “L’Evénement”, the new political program of the channel hosted by Caroline Roux, at 8:30 p.m.
After the international crises and the role of France in the world discussed on October 12, place this time to the national issues and the challenges of the executive in the absence of an absolute majority in the Assembly.
The Head of State should once again engage in a pedagogical exercise in the face of the many questions from the French, from the defense of their purchasing power battered by the war in Ukraine and inflation, to the pension reform on which the executive chose to temporize, without giving up.
“I expect simplicity and listening, a vision of the reality of the French”, summarizes the deputy and spokesperson for the Renaissance group in the Assembly, Violette Spillebout.
“And that all subjects are addressed: wages, profits, ecological investments, foreign offenders, justice,” she adds.
The French are hit hard by soaring energy prices, due in particular to the drop in gas deliveries decreed by Russia in response to European sanctions.
– “Brand” –
They have also just experienced three weeks of gasoline shortage at the pump, due to walkouts in depots and refineries.
While the superprofits of a few large groups, particularly in the energy sector, fuel the debate, demands around wage increases animate the social autumn, punctuated by several strike notices and calls to demonstrate.
The subject of immigration also came back in force after the murder of little Lola by an Algerian in an irregular situation, which shocked France.
The executive appeared on the defensive, faced with the low number of dismissals of foreigners having an obligation to leave French territory (“OQTF”), even if the political exploitation of this infanticide is debated.
“The essential challenge is to show that he is keeping a course and to say what will be the trademark of this five-year term, which for the moment seems difficult to read”, considers the president of the Elabe institute, Bernard Sananès .
“What the president must say is: what do we represent, and where are we going. This is what partly explains the failure in the legislative elections: we did not say where we wanted to go”, abounds a Renaissance deputy.
What about his wishes for reform? Of his method six months after his re-election, when he promised to be less “Jupiterian” during his second five-year term, but remains torn between consultations and passages in force?
Whether on pensions or the fuel crisis, Emmanuel Macron finally had to go to the front line when he had promised to take the field and leave his Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to the maneuver.
– Warning shot –
“The president can never be too absent from domestic matters because public opinion would not understand him either”, underlines Bernard Sananès.
In recent months, the Head of State has above all been on the offensive internationally, trying to pose as a mediator in the Ukrainian conflict and as a leader of the EU in the face of a German chancellor on the defensive over support for Ukraine.
On Wednesday, he will also receive Olaf Scholz for a working lunch at the Elysee Palace intended to pick up the pieces after a series of dissensions.
On the home front, Mr. Macron must do battle with reinvigorated left and far-right oppositions. A warning shot was also sent to the executive on Monday, the RN choosing to finally vote with the Nupes on a motion of censure against the Borne government.
If the shot failed, for lack of having been able to rally the voices of the right, the probable use of 49.3 in series to pass the budgetary texts for the next few weeks will certainly lead to other motions… and as many tests for a president who has already raised the specter of a dissolution. A threat in the form of an admission of weakness.
