Paris (AFP)

The executive meets in a seminar Wednesday to advance its 2020 priorities, including ecology and the fight against communitarianism, so far overshadowed by the endless crisis of pension reform, which the government hopes to turn the page .

"Obviously," the government "must continue to explain, clarify and also discuss" to pass the key social reform of the quinquennium, said Emmanuel Macron Tuesday in Pau.

But this dossier, which has been crushing all the others for several months, will not be the only one on the seminar table, which brings together the government in full at the start of each quarter.

Organized in the wake of the Council of Ministers, this meeting aims indeed to "address in depth both the calendar and the action of the government for the coming months, as well as the next reforms", according to spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye .

The executive hopes to have "closed an important chapter of pension reform" this weekend, says an adviser, reaching a compromise with the reformist unions, now back at the table. "We can resume a more normal course of government activity", continues the same source, by betting on the exhaustion of the strike.

Pensions will continue to chant in the coming months: presentation of bills in the Council of Ministers on January 24, start of examination in Parliament on February 17, expected conclusion of the "financing conference" in late April and adoption before the 'summer ", according to the calendar set by Edouard Philippe. At the same time, categorical discussions will continue to be held with teachers, officials, etc.

But other reforms, blocked in the funnel, must resume their progress, and the seminar aims to fix their timing.

"We have to agree on what we put on the agenda in 2020," said a minister. Because 2021, which will see the application of the measures voted the previous year, will be "the last year in which we can measure the effects before the presidential election" of 2022, she shifts.

Clearly: the year must be useful in order to take advantage of a balance sheet before the voters, a concern more and more prevalent within the majority.

- Greetings to the press -

During his televised wishes on December 31, Emmanuel Macron had insisted on the deployment of a "new ecological model". He promised "strong decisions" and opened the door to a referendum on the proposals that the 150 French will make of the Citizen Convention on the climate.

Measures are also expected, probably in February, before the municipal elections in March, on the fight against communitarianism, erected among the "great challenges of 2020" by the president. The ministries, including that of the Interior, must send back proposals to the Elysee Palace on the issue by the end of January.

News forces, Emmanuel Macron asked the government Tuesday for "clear proposals to improve the ethics" of the police, faced with new accusations of violence during the demonstrations in recent weeks.

Faced with these criticisms, the government has for some days turned its rhetoric by calling the police to "set an example" with a "fair and proportionate use of force".

In the coming months, the multi-annual research programming law is also expected, and the launch of that on dependency, initially expected before the end of 2019 and which aims to raise more than nine billion euros per year by 2030 in order to finance the care of the elderly. The text "is not yet ready, we must be able to discuss it with the trade unions", themselves over-solicited on the pension reform, notes a minister.

After the seminar, Emmanuel Macron will present his wishes to the press in front of hundreds of media representatives invited to the Elysée Palace. Renewing in 2018 with this tradition neglected by François Hollande, he then pleaded for "a healthy distance" between power and the press, and announced a law against the "manipulation of information" during electoral periods and a reform of the public audiovisual.

Thursday, the head of state will present his wishes to the armies on the air base of Orleans.

© 2020 AFP