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Pension reform in France: “This text will continue its democratic path”, challenged Macron

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French President Emmanuel Macron has decided to press ahead with the disputed pension reform, which he hopes to implement by the end of the year. were his first wordsthis Wednesday at noon.

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Macron spoke in an interview he gave to the two main channels in France, when the country is in state of rebellion because the reform was not voted in Parliament, but was approved with the application of article 49, paragraph 3 of the Constitution, in the form of a decree.

The head of state declared his support to the battered premier Elisabeth Borne, who remains in power but is seriously injured after the implementation of the reform and gets only nine votes to avoid falling. Macron “will industrialize France by 2030” and to implement the new reforms he will have to “enlarge his majority”.

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Striking employees watch President Macron on TV.  Photo: AP

Striking employees watch President Macron on TV. Photo: AP

“This text will continue on its democratic path”, said the president in his first response to the two journalists in the Elysée studio.

Now the text is in the Constitutional Council and we have to wait for a ruling on its legality. It must enter into force at the end of the year according to the head of state, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

The mob is illegitimate. We are a great nation and an ancient people. There is a legitimacy that exists: the unions, which I respect. The right to demonstrate is guaranteed by the Constitution. When groups use extreme violence to attack the chosen ones, without rules because they are not happy, they are not the Republic. They are concepts that clarify ”, she said.

“This reform does not please me”

“Do you think it gives me pleasure to make this reform? No. But I regret not being able to share the need to do so,” Macron said. “While I’m talking to you, do you think it makes me happy to do it? No ”, he continued, when asked about the opportunity to want to reform pensions.

“This reform it is necessary“, added the president, assuring him “there are no 36 solutions”.

Sanitation workers listen to Macron.  Photo: AP

Sanitation workers listen to Macron. Photo: AP

not a luxury this reform. It’s a necessity for the country, he clarified: “Between the polls and the country’s interest, I choose the country’s interest,” he assured. “Neither the rebels nor the factions,” she said.

Emmanuel Macron acknowledged that “people are angry, but there are also things that work. We can’t just look at what’s not working,” the president said.

“Violence must be condemned”

With France paralyzed by the strike of the garbage collectors, the blockades, the shortage of fuel and the threat of a general strike, the head of state He rejected violence.

“If there are demonstrations to say they are against, they are legitimate. I respect them. On the side there are blocks and violence. Violence must be condemned. And the blocks must be removed when they prevent normal activity ”, she clarified.

Violence must be condemned, Macron said.  Photo: AP

Violence must be condemned, Macron said. Photo: AP

Dressed in a blue suit and white shirt, the president announced it in 35 minutes reforms will continue and will convene the unions because “France must be reindustrialize by forced march”.

“Never the smicard (minimum wage workers) they had seen their purchasing power increase so much in recent years”, declared the head of state while inflation inflicts a serious blow on the wallets of the most modest.

Exponential income tax

The president announced “an exceptional levy” on “windfall profits”, which “will not be” a super tax on profits.

Dressed in a blue suit and white shirt, the president announced within 35 minutes that the reforms would continue.  Photo: Ludovic Marin / AFP

Dressed in a blue suit and white shirt, the president announced within 35 minutes that the reforms would continue. Photo: Ludovic Marin / AFP

Emmanuel Macron mentioned the large groups, which manage to “buy back their own shares” thanks to their profits. These companies must “distribute more to their employees”said the head of state.

Faced with social discontent and great political difficulties, the president said he was “willing to do it sustain unpopularity“.

“Between the polls, the short term and the general interest of the country, I choose the general interest,” he said.

Faced with retirement at 64 in France, the president “regrets that no trade union force has proposed a compromise”.

The centrals have presented a united front since the beginning of the mobilization, an unprecedented phenomenon since 2010.

“Resume dialogue”

The Head of State regretted that “some” “want to abstract from the principle of reality”, with reference to the question of the deficit.

Emmanuel Macron regrets that “the project of all the oppositions” to the pension reform “is the deficit”.

“We cannot accept rebels or factions,” he replied when asked about the tensions during the spontaneous demonstrations in recent days.

“We can accept neither rebels nor factions,” Macron said when asked about the protests.  Photo: AP

“We can accept neither rebels nor factions,” Macron said when asked about the protests. Photo: AP

“Even in the political incandescence, there is no alternative majority,” the president said.

Faced with the anger of the unions, the president has called for “resuming the dialogue” on working conditions.

Criticism of the opposition

A big disappointment occurred between politicians and union leaders after Emmanuel Macron’s speech.

Reacting to the presidential interview, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the left-wing group France Insumisa and NUPES, spoke of “the traditional displays of contempt we’re used to” during a press conference.

Great disappointment among politicians and union leaders after Emmanuel Macron's speech.  Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP

Great disappointment among politicians and union leaders after Emmanuel Macron’s speech. Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP

“Denial and lying!” In a tweet, Laurent Berger, the moderate union leader leading the protests, accused Emmanuel Macron of “lying about the CFDT position” on pensions to “hide their inability to find a majority vote for his unjust reform”.

“The CFDT has a pension reform project. Macron understood this in 2019. He had assumed our ambition of a universal system,” added the union leader.

“The people, who express themselves through their elected representatives, are the ones who chose you as a bulwark against the extreme right. The one who didn’t give you the mandate for this reform, the one who didn’t give you the majority in the National Assembly”, also recalled Rémi Cardon, socialist senator.

A large majority of the population, including Emmanuel Macron voters in the second round of the presidential elections, I am against the pension reform. according to the latest Elabe polls for BFMTV.

“Don’t insult the French people with every provocative speech”, jokes Louis Boyard, LFI deputy for Val-de-Marne.

“We know this from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s social contract sovereignty cannot be delegated. Elected officials don’t have it. People who demonstrate must be listened to and respected. Let’s start Macron by not calling it ‘crowd’,” wrote Clementine Autain.

So he contemptuously called them in the interview and in front of his deputies, saying that popular power has been delegated to the elected.

Right-wing and far-right, few parliamentarians had reacted to Emmanuel Macron’s statements.

“How many voted for Macron’s bloc? How many voted against and not in favor of Macron? Remember this scam well in the next elections ”, put RN MEP Virginie Joron on her Twitter account.

“At the Elysée there is a pyrotechnician who walks with a torch on barrels of gunpowder,” reacted the first secretary of the socialist party, Olivier Faure.

Thursday there will be more than 830 demonstrations throughout France organized by trade unions against the pension reform. The threat is the general strike.

ap

Source: Clarin

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