French President Macron signals to the discontent that he understood. In Paris, he introduced reforms that are designed to reduce anger in the country. With less pace and more justice.
„Hour of truth“ French media had christened the president’s press conference. In fact, the appearance of Emmanuel Macron took more than twice as long. The hours of truth revealed one thing very clearly: The French president has taken to court with himself – one can assume that the never-ending protests of the „Yellow West“ and the following Grand Débat had a certain share in it.
Macron’s quintessence: „This moment has transformed me, I have not discovered the country about this great debate, but I have felt what drives many fellow citizens, their concerns, their lack of understanding.“
Too impatient
Now the president wants to have learned that one can not simply transform Frenchmen, French women, in other words: turn one’s head to the ground, just because one can do it. As a president who knows his weaknesses and publicly admits, „I was as impatient and demanding with the French as I was with my government and made them feel like I was hard, sometimes unfair, I regret that.“
From the great national debate that has left him many hours a week with his compatriots and their concerns, Macron has, among other things, drawn the following conclusions: „I want tax cuts for those who work by cutting the income tax not insignificant.“
Planned: an Agenda 2025
In the future, it will be more humane and fairer in the country. In order to find the five billion euros, which are estimated for the tax cuts of the working French, tax loopholes for enterprises are to be closed. Macron is planning an Agenda 2025, with each one being encouraged to make the most of themselves. In this way, according to Macron, „we can revive the art of being French.“ What he means: „To be rooted in our country, our history and yet in the world, in the future.“
Less poetically, the president promised more citizen participation, ie petitions, especially at local level, simplification of structures, the abolition of the elite officials forge ENA, a more decentralized republic, in which not everything is aligned with Paris. Reconciling city and country, but not neglecting the borders, demands Macron.
Marine Le Pen from right-wing extremist Rassemblement National may have heard that with interest. The Schengen area is no longer functioning and migration policy needs to be reconsidered – „we need a Europe that protects its borders“.
The pace changes nothing
The world has changed, the president stated, but is that why everything that he launched in the last two years was wrong? A rhetorical question. „I believe the opposite: we must not stop the transformation.“
He has heard and heard a lot in the last few weeks, but anyone who thinks that the new Macron is doing everything differently has been wrong. „We have to go further,“ he explains, which is why unemployment insurance and pension reform will be tackled next.
Have become thoughtful through protests?
Whether the hate messages of the „Yellow West“, the yellow rage, the bad poll numbers would not make him think, Macron was asked in the press conference.
No, he replied, „if you want power and you are elected, you accept the fury that goes with it, who in a democracy today leads a country, has to accept that you are not popular – but I will not become one, I would like to please. “
Macron sees himself as the backbone of a democracy that is threatened on all sides. But he does not intend to move away from his mission, even if it requires unpleasant decisions. Does not he want to be re-elected in 2022? That, he explains, was „completely unimportant“ to him, he wanted this term to be a success. The poker face he puts on is pretty cool and convincing. But he has learned a lot, Macron says, lately.
