French President Emmanuel Macron has made a decision to support right-wing policies.
Everyone agreed after he talked for a long time on TV on Tuesday.
He wanted students to wear the same clothes at school, to stop drug gangs, and to increase the number of babies being born in France.
Left-leaning analysts were upset about his apparent change from the carefully balanced politics of the past few years.
But they believed that his true feelings were always on the right side.
People on the right were happy that he seemed to agree with them now, but they thought he was just pretending.
Macron spoke in front of about 100 reporters for 2. 5 hours at the Elysée palace.
It was supposed to be an opportunity for people to “meet the nation” and set the focus for his final three years in office, following criticism that he had lost his ability to make changes after being re-elected in 2022.
It happened a week after President Macron chose a new government with Gabriel Attal, who is the youngest prime minister in French history. Attal is in charge of a group of people in the government, and they are more conservative than the people who were in this role before.
Hugh wrote about Macron choosing a 34-year-old, Attal, as the youngest Prime Minister of France.
The president’s words showed that he changed his plans to deal with the increasing influence of the extreme right-wing nationalist Marine Le Pen. Her party, National Rally (RN), is expected to win the most votes in the European elections in June.
He believed that teaching French values to kids in school was important for keeping France’s identity.
He said that each new group of people must understand the Republic, including its history, responsibilities, freedoms, and culture, starting from when they are young.
He said that if an experiment in 100 schools next year goes well, everyone in school will have to wear a uniform in 2026. This idea is usually supported only by some of the political right.
He wanted schools to teach the national anthem and have ceremonies for giving out diplomas. He also wanted 16-year-olds to do community service. He also promised to make rules to limit how long kids can use screens.
However, the president’s most obvious use of conservative ideas was a promise to make more policies to encourage people to have more babies, because the birth rate in France is going down. In 2023, fewer than 700,000 babies were born, which is the lowest number since World War Two.
The French press often says that policies like these are only for “reactionary” governments, like the one led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hungary. Macron wants to make it easier for people to have fertility treatments and have more time off work when they become parents.
The left-wing newspaper Libération said that the speech showed a conservative view of France, and promised to keep fighting illegal immigration and drug gangs.
Le Monde said the president was looking back at the old France and feeling nostalgic.
The newspaper Le Figaro, which is conservative, thinks that the president openly changed his policy. He has never been so close to meeting the public’s expectations, and we should be happy about it.
The president picked a plan for his speech. He will talk for 30 minutes first. Then, he will answer questions from journalists for two hours.
The detailed format worked well for President Macron because he is very good at discussing every possible topic in great detail and he enjoys doing it. He didn’t do a good job of avoiding the risk of looking intellectually conceited. He may have been trying to hide the fact that he didn’t have much to say by using a lot of words.
Marine Le Pen said the press conference was “another never-ending talk”.
Tag: President Macron
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Macron turns to right over birthrate and education
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Justification for Macron’s ship’s voyage to Gaza
President Emmanuel Macron‘s visit to Israel and its neighboring countries has led to a French navy ship being sent to the eastern Mediterranean.
The Tonnerre has often been wrongly called a “hospital-ship”.
Its main job in the area affected by conflict will be to provide help to the people of Gaza by delivering medical aid.
The Mistral class helicopter-carrier is a very important ship in the French navy.
The Tonnerre can bring many soldiers, tanks, and armored vehicles to a foreign beach. However, this time the mission will be very different.
The boat sailed away from its starting place, Toulon, on Wednesday. This is the same ship that France agreed to give to Russia 10 years ago, but then backed out of the deal because they were worried that it could be used to attack a country like Ukraine.
Besides being able to project its strength, the Tonnerre also has a small hospital unit. This unit has 69 beds and two operating rooms, which is similar to a hospital in a French town with 25,000 people.
Clearly, because of how much help Gaza needs, the impact of this will not be very significant, it will only be symbolic.
However, showing kindness and compassion towards others is significant. President Macron has received some criticism in France for favoring Israel too much. However, this decision allows for a slight adjustment towards prioritizing Arab interests.
Other practical considerations might also be relevant. The Tonnerre has advanced communication tools that could help France gather information on its own in the conflict.
And if things in the Middle East get worse and turn into a bigger war, it might be necessary to have ships ready to bring French citizens back home, especially in Lebanon where there are a lot of them. The Tonnerre doesn’t have a lot of weapons, so it needs two frigates, the Surcouf and the Alsace, to protect it in dangerous areas. -
President Macron signs new pension age into law
The extremely unpopular pension reforms which raise the state pension age from 62 to 64, have been signed into law by French President Emmanuel Macron.
It took place hours after France’s highest constitutional council approved the modification.
The Constitutional Council rejected calls for a referendum from the opposition, but it also ruled that key portions of the amendments were invalid due to legal issues.
After the council made its decision, demonstrators set fire to Paris, and 112 people were detained.
Since January, there have been twelve days of protests opposing the reforms.
The measures will continue to be opposed, and on May 1st, unions are urging workers all over France to go to the streets once more.
President Macron argues the reforms are essential to prevent the pension system collapsing. In March, the government used a special constitutional power to force through the changes without a vote.
He signed the reforms into law in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt has said he expects the reforms to come into effect by the start of September.
After the Friday ruling of the Constitutional Court, trade unions made an unsuccessful last-ditch appeal to the president not to sign the pension-age increase into law.
The unions pointed out that six concessions that had been added to the reforms were rejected by the court, so what was already unfair was now “even more unbalanced”.
Among the reforms struck down by the nine members of the Constitutional Council was a so-called “senior index” aimed at urging companies with more than 1,000 workers to take on employees over 55.
Mr Dussopt has vowed to improve the employment rates of those aged over 50 in an effort to ease concerns about the financial impacts of the raised retirement age.
The authorities had banned demonstrations in front of the Constitutional Council building in Paris until Saturday morning, but crowds of protesters had gathered nearby on Friday and the ruling was met with jeers.
Some demonstrators chanted they would continue protesting until the changes were withdrawn.
Later, several fires were set across the city as riot police tried to contain the situation, sometimes using tear gas. A Paris police official said 112 people have been arrested.
Fires were also lit during demonstrations in Rennes and Nantes, while there were tense standoffs at times between protesters and police in Lyon.
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French Council approves raising of retirement age
Information coming in is that France’s top constitutional body has approved President Emmanuel Macron’s contested plan to raise the retirement age.
The decision taken on Friday is in line with the French Constitution. The retirement age in France is 64 years. Macron can enact the bill within 15 days.
All eyes were on the heavily guarded Constitutional Council, which can nix all or parts of a complex pension reform plan that Macron pushed through without a vote by the lower house of parliament.
Security forces stood behind a metal fence erected in front of the edifice where the decision was being made.
As tensions mounted hours before the decision, Macron invited labor unions to meet with him on Tuesday “whatever the decision by the Constitutional Council,” his office said.
The president did not grant a request last month by unions for a meeting.
The president’s drive to increase the retirement age has provoked months of labor strikes and protests.
Violence by pockets of ultra-left radicals marked the 12 otherwise peaceful nationwide marches that unions organized since January.
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King Charles delays his trip to France over chaotic demonstrations
In response to violent protests in France, King Charles has postponed his state visit.
The announcement follows unions’ promises to continue causing trouble during the monarch’s visit.
The King and Camilla, the Queen Consort, were scheduled to visit President Emmanuel Macron from March 26 to March 29.
But, the royal visit has been postponed due to turmoil in France, where buildings have been set on fire.
Bordeaux town hall ablaze after protesters set fire to iconic building
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: ‘The King and The Queen Consort’s State Visit to France has been postponed.
‘Their Majesties greatly look forward to the opportunity to visit France as soon as dates can be found.’
Protests in France are in response to President Macron’s controversial plan to push through a bill to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a vote in the French Parliament.
Backlash has led teachers, oil refinery, railway and airport workers at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to walk out.
More than 450 protesters were arrested in Paris and beyond on Thursday, as some 300 demonstrations drew more than a million people nationwide.
Last night, Bordeaux Town Hall was set alight amid the disruption.
The mayor of the town, Pierre Hurmic, said on Friday he had ‘difficulty understanding the interest of such acts of vandalism’.
Meanwhile in Paris, there have been occasional clashes between police and masked rioters who smashed shop windows, demolished street furniture and attacked a McDonald’s restaurant, according to Reuters.
Attractions like the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles were closed on Thursday.
There were further clashes in other French cities in the west of the country including in Nantes, Rennes and Lorient.
Polls say most French oppose Mr Macron’s Bill to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64, which he says is necessary to keep the system afloat.
In Greece, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the French embassy in Athens on Thursday to show solidarity.
Protesters chanted slogans and held placards that read ‘Macron, your democracy hangs on nine votes’ and ‘From Greece: victory for the workers of France’.
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President Macron to visit Gabon, Angola, 2 others
Before beginning his visit to four African nations on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron is anticipated to lay out a new Africa policy.
He is anticipated to travel to Angola, Congo-Brazzaville, the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon for an environmental meeting, and then Angola.
It takes place as Paris tries to stave off the region’s growing influence from China and Russia.
In several of its former colonies in the Sahel, there has been a strong anti-French attitude.
Burkina Faso announced the official conclusion of the French military intervention in the country a week ago after giving France a month to withdraw its 400 special forces.
In Mali, French troops withdrew from the country after the military government there started working with the Russian private military contractor Wagner.
The Russian group has also been operating in the Central African Republic.
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France moves to block Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age
The French unions have conducted a day of widespread strikes and protests over President Macron’s proposals to raise the retirement age on Thursday, putting the reform agenda on the line.
A new bill due to go through parliament will raise the official age at which people can stop work from 62 to 64.
Intercity and commuter train services are expected to be badly disrupted.
Many schools and other public services will be shut. At Orly airport in Paris, one in five flights has been cancelled.
On the Paris metro only the two driverless lines will work normally.
Large demonstrations drawing tens of thousands are expected in Paris and other cities, where police will be out in force in case of violence from ultra-left “black bloc” infiltrators.
Under the proposals outlined earlier this month by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, from 2027 people will have to work 43 years to qualify for a full pension, as opposed to 42 years now.
Hailed by the government as a vital measure to safeguard France’s share-out pension system, the reform is proving deeply unpopular among the public – with 68% saying they are opposed, according to an IFOP poll this week.
All the country’s unions – including so-called “reformist” unions that the government had hoped to win to its side – have condemned the measure, as have the left-wing and far-right oppositions in the National Assembly.
“On Thursday the walls of the Élysée palace must tremble,” Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel said on Tuesday.
Because his Renaissance party does not have a majority in the Assembly, French President Emmanuel Macron will be forced to rely on support from the 60 or so MPs of the conservative Republicans party. Though in principle in favour of pension reform, even some of them have warned they could vote against.
With the parliamentary process expected to take several weeks, Mr Macron faces a rolling campaign of opposition, with further days of action likely in the days ahead. The worst outcome for the government would be rolling strikes in transport, hospitals and fuel depots – effectively bringing the country to a standstill.
Political analysts agreed the mood of the country was hard to gauge, so it was impossible to predict whether the scale of the movement would be enough to force the president into a retreat. If that happened, it could mark the end of any serious reforms in this, his second term.
On the one hand, inflation, the energy crisis and constant reports of run-down public services have left many people feeling anxious and irascible. President Macron’s poor image outside the prosperous cities contributed to the “yellow-vest” insurrection four years ago, and could well do so again.
But on the other hand, pollsters have also identified a sense of resignation among many people, who no longer identify with “old-school” social movements such as the unions specialise in. Many will also be too concerned about the loss of a day’s income to go on strike.
The prime minister invoked the principle of “inter-generational solidarity” to justify the decision to make people work longer. Under the French system, very few people have personal pension plans linked to capital investments.
Instead the pensions of those who are retired are paid from the same common fund into which those in work are contributing every month. Workers know they will benefit from the same treatment when they retire.
Image caption,The reforms have sparked comparisons between Macron and the UK’s former prime minister Margaret Thatcher However, the government says the system is heading for disaster because the ratio between those working and those in retirement is diminishing rapidly. From four workers per retiree 50 years ago, the ratio has fallen to around 1.7 per retiree today, and will sink further in the years ahead.
Nearly all other European countries have taken steps to raise the official retirement age, with Italy and Germany for example on 67 and Spain on 65. In the UK it is currently 66.
President Macron made an earlier, and more ambitious, attempt to reform the system at the end of 2019, but pulled the plug when Covid hit. This second plan was part of his re-election manifesto last year – a key argument deployed by the government in the battle for public opinion.
To palliate the effects of the reform, Élisabeth Borne has promised easier ways to retire early for people in dangerous or physically demanding jobs; steps to encourage older people back into the workforce; and a higher guaranteed minimum pension.
The opposition argues the system is not technically in deficit at the moment, so there is no urgency to act. It says there are cost-saving alternatives to making people work longer, such as cutting pensions for the better-off.
It also says the brunt of the reform will be borne by the poorest. These are people who tend to start work earlier in life, so have normally earned the right to a full pension by the age of 62. Now they will have to work two extra years for no added benefit.
This is the seventh French pension reform since President François Mitterrand cut the retirement age to 60 in 1982.
Every subsequent attempt to reverse that change has led to mass opposition on the street – though in most cases the reform did in the end go through. For example, in 2010, Nicolas Sarkozy raised the retirement age to 62, despite weeks of protests.
Source: BBC
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‘Extraordinary’ Mbappe made France proud, President Macron says
President Emmanuel Macron claims that Kylian Mbappe made France proud with a “extraordinary” performance despite Les Bleus’ devastating World Cup final loss to Argentina.
After falling behind by two goals at the Lusail Stadium, France were doomed to a demoralizing defeat, but Mbappe scored twice in a span of 97 seconds to force overtime.
Mbappe scored a late penalty to become just the second player—after England’s Geoff Hurst in 1966—to score a hat-trick in a men’s World Cup final after watching teammate Lionel Messi give Argentina the lead back.
While shoot-out misses from Kingsley Coman and Aurelien Tchouameni crushed France’s hopes of retaining the trophy, Macron – who was seen talking with Mbappe after the defeat – said the forward had made his country proud.
“We were very far behind at the end of the first period. It’s already happened, there have been comebacks like that, but it’s very rare in the history of football,” Macron told RMC Sport.
“We came back tremendously. It’s extraordinary what Mbappe did, but the whole team were hungry again. I believed in it immensely.
“Afterwards, we performed a second miracle by coming back from nowhere. We had match point.
“Mbappe is a very great player, but he is young, I told him he was only 23. He was top scorer at this World Cup. He won a World Cup [in 2018], he made a final.
“I was as sad as him. I said he made us very proud and in the end we lost a football match, we went to nothing. That’s sport.”
Mbappe’s treble took him to 12 World Cup goals in his career, drawing him level with Pele’s tally and making him the youngest player to reach double figures at the tournament, aged 23 years and 363 days.
The France forward also became just the fifth player to score in two World Cup finals, after Vava (1958, 1962), Pele (1958, 1970), Paul Breitner (1974, 1982) and Zinedine Zidane (1998, 2006).