Mélenchon feeds "a strategy of destabilization of our society", says François Bayrou

Europe 1 with AFP 13:45 p.m., March 26, 2023

The Insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon maintains "a strategy of destabilization of our society" by multiplying "the clashes", said Sunday on Radio J François Bayrou, the boss of the MoDem, pleading for "order" in the face of "those who would like to obtain chaos". Jean-Luc Mélenchon has "a strategy of destabilizing our society, by multiplying clashes. It is a strategy to obtain the takeover of society by an ideological movement that would impose its view on others and this is called a revolution," Bayrou said.

François Bayrou castigates the "movement of destabilization and destruction"

Faced with this protest movement, François Bayrou claims to have "always been on the side of the reformists" who say "Let's take our world as it is". Because, "we cannot find a country in which education is free, health is free, unemployment is guaranteed to everyone and retirement is guaranteed to everyone," insisted the High Commissioner for Planning.

François Bayrou also castigated the "movement of destabilization and destruction", led by the perpetrators of violence in the demonstrations, "a thoughtful, concerted movement, without any link with reality" based on "a nihilistic ideology" that aims at "the takeover of society by violence".

According to the Ministry of the Interior, 441 police and gendarmes were injured Thursday during mobilizations against the pension reform. On Saturday, a banned demonstration against basins in Sainte-Soline in the Deux-Sèvres also turned into a clash between gendarmes and activists. Faced with accusations of police violence, François Bayrou admitted that there could be "slippage". But the police "have families, they have children, they have their worries and their situation is not miraculous," he said. "There are men behind the helmets," "who are hurt by being constantly thrown to popular condemnation," he said.

'Avoiding politics in fits and starts'

Regarding the pension reform, François Bayrou admitted "inadequacies" of the majority: "what was missing is that we simply explain the situation to each of the French citizens and that everyone can get an idea," he pleaded, evoking "a fallacious presentation, or too optimistic" on the state of the accounts of the pension system.

"Everyone was complacently mistaken, majority and opposition," he said, just sparing Emmanuel Macron who "at least said the words on the situation of the country". Faced with the political crisis, François Bayrou said that it was better to "avoid politics in fits and starts", by a dissolution, a massive reshuffle, or a radical change of course. But "I think there will necessarily be reconfigurations (...) for the entire executive," he added.