The President of the Republic speaks on Sunday, June 14 at 8 p.m., for a solemn address from the Élysée Palace, the fourth since the start of the Covid-19 crisis.

Emmanuel Macron should first speak on emergency subjects, starting with the third stage of deconfinement planned for June 22 and its main challenges: reopening restaurants in Île-de-France, softening of rules in schools and lifting of the ban on gatherings of more than 10 people - especially as the Council of State, seized in summary procedure, restored on Saturday the freedom to demonstrate. The calls to accelerate the process of deconfinement have multiplied in recent days.

Emmanuel Macron should also reconsider his management of the crisis, from which he hardly benefited from political benefits, his popularity rating continuing to decline unlike that of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. A reshuffle is in the air, after the second round of municipal elections on June 28.

What "new step" for post-Covid?

This speech should allow Emmanuel Macron, forced to manage the emergency for three months, to finally start to project himself after the Covid.

It seems too early to present the recovery plan planned for the start of the school year. The results of Ségur de la Santé to bail out the hospital could also be the subject of a new speech in July.

But a week before the end of the work of the Citizen's Climate Convention, the head of state could evoke his intentions on ecology, displayed as a priority for the end of the quinquennium. The proposals of the convention could be the subject of a referendum, hypothesis always considered according to those around him.

Emmanuel Macron spoke during the crisis of his desire to "reinvent himself", then spoke of a "new era" and a "new stage".

At a lunch with editorialists on Thursday, he said he was convinced he had made the right choices for three years. No question therefore of remitting a tax on the richest, nor of a "Grenelle of wages". He also intends to resume work on retirement by points, despite the social conflict it has sparked, and hopes to rally unions by reviewing divisive provisions, such as the pivotal age.

On the other hand, the president could promise a new, less vertical method, by "co-constructing" his decisions with local elected representatives or social partners. He would finally consider deconcentration for the benefit of the departments, drawing lessons from the cumbersome nature of the central state during the crisis.

A position on the question of police violence?

The head of state is also shaken up by a new front, that of demonstrations against racism and police violence, after the death of George Floyd in the United States and the recall of that of Adama Traoré in 2016.

"We must not lose youth," he said on Thursday. The president of the Senate Gérard Larcher stressed that "the atmosphere is not good in this country".

His Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, announced too quickly sanctions against the police in the event of "proven suspicion" of racism, provoking their anger, before admitting an error. The police unions request to be received by the Head of State.

These tensions could push the president to speak on the subject. According to Bruno Retailleau and Damien Abad, respectively heads of senators and deputies LR, "The head of state must show the French that he is really a leader and that there is still a state".

In the government, many have already advanced their ideas to better fight against discrimination: the spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye wishes to reopen "the debate around ethnic statistics", while the Minister of the City Julien Denormandie is only ready to "statistics according to the place of residence" for more diversity in business.

With AFP

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