This Saturday, Catherine Nay brush takes stock of half of Emmanuel Macron's five-year term, marked by the start of the movement of yellow vests.
Wednesday, in the Council of Ministers, Emmanuel Macron took stock of his action on this day which marked, said he, the hemistiche of the quinquennium. A nice word, as the president loves.
"Hemistich". It's poetry. It is the break in the middle of an Alexandrine, which contains, as everyone knows, twelve feet. The president is halfway through his five-year term. And he affirms it: never France had experienced such a steady pace of reforms. And the results are there. In terms of job creation, through the relaxation of the Labor Code, the reform of apprenticeship, education with the doubling of classes, the Pathway for students, which is a success despite some failures. Withdrawal at source, hailed as a success, business investment is maintained, growth resists, etc. Everything could have been perfect in the best of all worlds.
Except that a year ago, the power, that nothing seemed to have shaken, had to face a jacquerie of unprecedented power: yellow vests.
Since then, Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly made his mea culpa , acknowledged that he had hurt, failed to make himself understood. He had not measured the feeling of abandonment of the poorest, but also of the middle classes. The yellow vests revealed these disarray. As the violence escalated, 17 billion were disrupted. Purchasing power grew 2.3% this year. But at this point, everyone does not find his little ones. These billions have not been enough to calm the anger.
During these two and a half years, where he went from an unexpected victory to an unprecedented social explosion, Emmanuel Macron changed?
It has not changed, testifies a close, in the sense that the president is always so stubborn, stubborn, voluntarist. He continues to exhaust his world. The ministers are exhausted. But he learned a lot. Then finished the little vexatious or contemptuous phrases that chanted each of his movements and that the journalists were watching. It was stronger than him. All this is finished. Emmanuel Macron understood that you can not transform the country without taking people with you without listening. So since, he questions, consults, again and again. He reconnected with the intermediate bodies, which he treated over his leg. But he always has this will to act and do.
How is this second part of the five-year period taking shape?
First, big unknown: today is the first anniversary of the demonstrations of yellow vests. We will measure the degree of violence. And then we are three weeks of the unlimited strike announced at the RATP and the SNCF, which may block the country at the time of the holidays. Emmanuel Macron will do everything to prevent the dreaded convergence of all anger: the hospital, students, and yellow vests ... Wednesday, a significant emergency plan will be announced for the hospital sector. There is also a conciliatory tone on pensions. "There will be no big night, but a framework law with pathways," predicts a close. Understand a very, very progressive implementation of the reform, after Emmanuel Macron stated that there was no question of denying the acquired rights of individuals.
On other very heavy issues, such as institutional reform or ecological transition, again the government makes the choice of long-term consultation. In the meantime, the urgency is to pass the course of December as best as possible. Then it will be necessary to restore meaning, restore confidence, which will not be easy. Because after the mid-term, the crazy race towards the presidential election will start.