Prime Minister Jean Castex in Dijon on July 10, 2020 - JC Tardivon / SIPA

Following the intervention of Emmanuel Macron, the Prime Minister declined Wednesday afternoon before the National Assembly the road map of the government for the coming months which promise to be particularly complicated against the background of the health and economic crisis. Mandatory mask in confined spaces from August 1, industrial and ecological recovery plan, priority for young people: by resuming Tuesday with the TV interview of July 14, the President of the Republic mentioned several measures, but often without returning in details.

Place Jean Castex to clarify the intentions of the executive during his declaration of general policy which starts at 3:00 pm in the National Assembly, followed by a debate for two and a half hours, then a vote. "It's a meeting with yourself, you have to feel the country, both to be in line with the guidelines of the Head of State and then to be aware that you have to do specific and concrete things because 'we have 600 days' by the end of the five-year term, he told Le Figaro .

Announcements about the territories

The text will be read at the same time by a minister before the Senate. Jean Castex will come himself Thursday at 10 a.m. in front of the upper room. Also at the Luxembourg Palace, the declaration, an exercise which traditionally marks the entry into office of a new government, will be followed by a debate, but without vote. The Prime Minister could clarify his announcements concerning the territories, to which he pays great attention.

Deputies and senators impatiently await this exercise which, they hope, will reveal the Prime Minister, from the right, his method with Parliament and his privileged axes. Even on the side of the majority, the deputies ask to be convinced. Many thought for the last two years of the quinquennium a "center-left response" after the departure of Edouard Philippe de Matignon.

In addition, the feverishness has gained the ranks LREM and MoDem, where a few Secretaries of State should be appointed, probably by the end of the week. Within the executive, they "hold them all for the vote of confidence", observes the deputy Matthieu Orphelin, ex- "walker". Edouard Philippe had received 370 favorable votes in July 2017 for his first general policy statement, then 363 in June 2019 for the second. The votes against had increased strongly: from 67 to 163.

"No calendar" 

For Jean Castex, this great oral comes 24 hours after the intervention of Emmanuel Macron who left the opposition hungry. “Ambiguous, vague”, for the boss of the LR group at the Assembly, Damien Abad; a “chatter” according to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, or “nothing precise, no timetable”, deplored the EELV MEP Yannick Jadot. If the desire of the Head of State to impose the wearing of masks in public places closed from August 1 has monopolized attention, he also announced a "massive" recovery plan of 100 billion euros in total, at the same time "industrial, ecological, local, cultural and educational".

In particular, Emmanuel Macron proposed an exemption from charges for young people, intended to encourage the hiring of employees with "low qualifications, up to 1.6 times the minimum wage". The recovery plan, which must include an important ecological component including a massive plan to renovate schools and nursing homes, will be financed by European aid, as part of the recovery plan that France hopes to see adopted by the 27 countries of the world. 'EU, and through debt.

But without a tax increase, he said, including by ruling out an "absurd" reinstatement of the ISF which "would not settle anything". Jean Castex could also return to the explosive pension reform, suspended "sine die" mid-March after his vote at first reading in the National Assembly, via the procedure of 49-3. Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron considered that France could not make “the economy of a reform” of its pension system, while recognizing that the government project could not be maintained as it was planned before the crisis sanitary.

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  • Senate
  • Emmanuel Macron
  • National Assembly
  • Jean Castex