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France: Emmanuel Macron bets on vocational high schools

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President Emmanuel Macron visits the Bernard-Palissy vocational high school, May 4, 2023. REUTERS - POOL

Text by: Valérie Gas Follow

2 min

French President Emmanuel Macron visited Charente-Maritime on Thursday, May 4, at the Bernard-Palissy technical high school in Saintes, with the aim of launching a reform of vocational high schools. His strategy is always the same: try to show that he is in action and that his five-year term is not blocked despite the protest around the pension reform that continues.

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With our special envoy in Saintes,

A "national cause". The stage is set. For Emmanuel Macron, it is necessary to turn the page of pensions. And the reform of the vocational high school is, according to him, a new priority that deserves resources. Moreover, the State will take care of allowances for trainees and release an additional billion per year. A promise that a student of the Bernard-Palissy high school heard well:

To the question "how do you finance the billion euros?", Emmanuel Macron answers: "We make savings on other subjects. The big savings of the next few years will be on the pension system. (...) The money that the government puts to fill the deficit of the system will be put instead to invest in the future.

And in the future, Emmanuel Macron intends to upgrade this school sector to help fight against what he has often called "house arrest". "Our duty is to allow young people, precisely perhaps because they come from a city that is more struggling, from a family that is more struggling, to make up for that," he said.

From the vocational high school, Emmanuel Macron arrives at the territorial divide: "The role of the nation is also to allow to have in the local high school a profession that leads very far. What we are building is a real response to the fracture of territories and destinies in which some would like to lock us. Because it is not a reality. So it's up to us to play.

A voluntarist and social discourse to try not to remain stuck on pensions. But in Saintes, once again, demonstrators were waiting for Emmanuel Macron with pots and pans.

" READ ALSO – Emmanuel Macron: 100 days and a lot of pots and pans

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• France
• French politics
• Emmanuel Macron
• Education
• Social issues
• Employment and Labour
• Teaching