Mélina Facchin (in Strasbourg), edited by Laura Laplaud / Photo credit: RICCARDO MILANI / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 07:00, April 18, 2023

President Emmanuel Macron delivered a speech of just over 13 minutes on Monday evening, two days after the enactment of the highly controversial pension reform. The head of state unveiled the government's next major projects. Europe 1 watched this speech with a couple from Strasbourg, a priori favorable to the President of the Republic.

For a little less than 15 minutes, the President of the French Republic briefly returned to the promulgation of the law on pension reform before announcing the government's next three projects. Emmanuel Macron gives himself 100 days, until July 14, to appease the country and relaunch his five-year term, weighed down by the pension crisis. But has the head of state met the expectations of the French?

>> READ ALSO – Pensions: what to remember from Emmanuel Macron's speech

"I was expecting something much more concrete"

In front of their television, Samuel, a restaurateur, and Catherine, his wife, an executive, were waiting for a gesture of appeasement from the president. "[We hoped] that he would finally try to find a compromise with the unions and the French people."

"A consensus could not be found and I regret it," Macron said. After a few minutes of speeches, Samuel and Catherine are aghast. "I'm rather disappointed, I was expecting something much more concrete," says Samuel. "He has completely hijacked the pension reform," adds Catherine.

"He's somewhere else!"

The head of state wanted to close the chapter of pensions and address new "projects" such as justice, republican and democratic order, he detailed Monday evening. "I can understand him talking about it, but again, for me, it wasn't the time. I am sorry, the president did not play the role. He should have talked much more about pensions, the economic situation, inflation, purchasing power. And I, who am rather Macronist, I voted for him, I do not understand. It is elsewhere! In no way did he calm the situation," Samuel said.

On the contrary, the couple fears that this speech will further revive the anger of the street.