It is from the presidential palace that the Prime Minister will make public, after having presented it at the table of the Council of Ministers, the content of the government program for the coming weeks.

It will be a test for an executive still deprived of an absolute majority in the Assembly and weakened by the chaotic adoption of the pension reform.

Since the promulgation of the law, Emmanuel Macron has embarked on a series of trips --Alsace, Hérault, Loir-et-Cher-- to praise his action and expose his new priorities.

Trips accompanied by demonstrations of opponents and their concerts of pots, as for most ministerial breakaways on the ground, like the heckled visit Monday to Lyon of Education Minister Pap Ndiaye.

Concert of pots and pans to protest against President Emmanuel Macron, April 24, 2023 in Lyon © JEFF PACHOUD / AFP/Archives

The inter-union, for its part, is preparing the demonstrations of May 1st, which it wishes to make a show of force. "It can be the baroud of honor" of the interunion, hopes a minister.

The time is nevertheless for the revival of the executive machine at a time when Emmanuel Macron has just crossed the first anniversary of his re-election.

A single immigration text

In his address to the French on April 17, the head of state gave himself "one hundred days", with a "first assessment" on July 14, and commissioned Mrs. Borne to establish and detail the content.

But the president did not content himself with listing his "priority projects" (work, "justice and republican and democratic order", "public services" including schools and health): he has also, since then, delivered some tracks of calendar and method.

President Emmanuel Macron during a televised address from the Elysee Palace on April 17, 2023 in Paris © Ludovic MARIN / AFP/Archives

On the labour side, he referred to a text of law transposing "very quickly" the national interprofessional agreement on the "sharing of value" in companies, concluded between employers' organizations and trade unions.

He also cited a project "on France Work (transformation of Pôle Emploi, Editor's note) and on vocational high schools, on which we must make progress by the summer" and which will be carried out by Minister Olivier Dussopt.

According to government and parliamentary sources, Ms. Borne should also outline a future digital law including the establishment of an "anti-scam filter", the transcription into French law of the new European regulations on digital services and markets (DSA-DMA), or a "strengthening" of the blocking of pornographic sites for minors.

On the immigration side, Macron advocated "a single text" to "toughen our rules" on deportation while improving integration. Thus dismissing the hypothesis of a project divided into several texts to facilitate its adoption, as he himself had mentioned a month ago.

Speculations for Matignon

But "I don't know what the path will be. We must build a political majority," he said, when asked about the possibility of adoption at 49.3.

President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne during a meeting with MEDEF, CPME and the local business union, on April 18, 2023 at the Elysee Palace in Paris © STEPHANIE LECOCQ / POOL / AFP / Archives

While Ms. Borne recently said, in an interview with AFP, that she no longer intended, in the future, to use this constitutional weapon, except for financial texts, the 49.3 "is obviously part of the hypotheses", yet judged Tuesday Olivier Dussopt. Even if, on the immigration law, it will be necessary "to do everything to avoid it", added the Minister of Labor, committed to this text alongside the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.

Mrs. Borne will perform the after-sales service Thursday morning during the "4 truths" on France 2. But after the sequence of retreats, and while Emmanuel Macron has accumulated distant declarations about his Prime Minister, speculation is rife about his future at Matignon.

"I am worried," whispers a member of the majority, sceptical about the "gifts" that the right could offer to Parliament to allow the adoption of laws.

But the executive could also choose to circumvent the obstacle, also unveiling regulatory measures. Ms Borne has outlined the way, announcing last week the halving of the deadline for obtaining identity documents, one of the famous "concrete solutions" touted by the Prime Minister.

© 2023 AFP