A president who is already working hard. From Fort Brégançon, in Var, where he arrived on Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron “follows the archives” and “prepares the start of the school year” 2023 “. He promises to be busy and there will be no shortage of hot topics.
• The pension reform and the specter of an explosive social return
The government wants to extend the legal retirement age to 65. For the moment, the Executive is groping and postponing this issue. The President of the Republic wanted to leave quickly. Pressured in particular by his ally François Bayrou, he nevertheless agreed to grant more time for the consultation.
By abandoning the option of a reform through the modification of the Social Security Financing Bill (PLFSS) in autumn, the Government has set course for the presentation of its bill on December 15. Then he changed his mind. From the Élysée, the head of state announced another postponement of the deadline, this time to January 10. Evidence that the subject is highly sensitive. Official justification:
This new calendar should allow “those who […] they have just assumed responsibilities” -such as Éric Ciotti, the new president of Les Républicains or his counterpart at Europe-Écologie-Les-Verts, Marine Tondelier- for “discussing with the government” about “some key elements of the reform”.
The arrival of the holidays or the France-Morocco semifinal in the World Cup, scheduled for a day before the initial announcement of the reform, can also explain the movement of the executive. However, the ground for the start of the school year also looks very slippery.
With his reform, the government could – as during Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term – face a huge social movement while his reform is rejected by the majority of the French. Among the unions, even the CFDT, though perceived as a core reformer, opposes the extension of the legal retirement age.
The executive is no longer successful with the opposition. As expected, the New Ecological and Social Popular Union (Nupes) and the National Association (RN) oppose its reform. More surprising and annoying for the relative majority: the LR deputies were not in tune with the issue, unlike their senator counterparts in favor of postponing the age of majority.
The option of 49.3 remains for the Government, which it can use once per parliamentary session outside of the budget texts.
• The energy crisis
The Executive, after having left its reform lukewarm during the holidays, is also committed to a better social context at the beginning of the school year. But nothing is less certain since gas and electricity prices will increase up to 15% in January -the limit set by the tariff shield- and inflation remains at a high level (+6.3% in December 2022 compared to last year).
Above all, Emmanuel Macron will have to deal with the threat of power cuts in January, due to the war-linked energy crisis in Ukraine. So far, the government has adopted a tone that combines confidence and seriousness.
Objective: to reassure, while the spirits are prepared. Even if that means showing doubts about the communication to adopt. Olivier Véran, government spokesman, has thus multiplied the formulas in the conditional. In early December, Emmanuel Macron came out of the woods to reassure the French.
Previously, Enedis spokesman Laurent Méric had set fire to the gunpowder, indicating on BFMTV that in the event of power outages, people at high risk of life would not be “priority” and “possibly deprived”.
“Enough with all that,” replied the President of the Republic. Before reformulating: “The role of the government, of the ministers, of the operators, is to do their job to provide energy, that’s all.” While he calls on these different actors not to “scare people with absurd scenarios.”
• The health system
Another project scheduled for January: the reform of the health system, to which Minister François Braun has committed. “I will have to announce the main lines of work on the restructuring of our health system, as a whole, both city medicine and hospital medicine,” he explained from Annecy, in Haute-Savoie, whose hospital he visited this Wednesday.
It is about “taking into account the harshness and a certain number of problems raised by professionals in the field”, on the occasion in particular of the National Council of refoundation dedicated to health. Which took place between October and the end of 2022.
Already exhausted by three years of pandemic, hospital staff are currently facing a critical situation characterized by a triple epidemic of Covid-19, bronchiolitis and influenza. In addition to this, a strike by liberal doctors has been taking place since Monday, to demand in particular the doubling of consultation fees. So many questions that François Braun will have to answer.
Apart from this project, Emmanuel Macron launched a citizen convention in September on the thorny issue of the end of life. In January, participants in this system will get to the heart of the matter by examining ten “priority issues.” Before deciding, in March, whether or not to change the current law, without guarantees of compliance, based on this question: “Is the end-of-life support framework adapted to the different situations encountered or should some change be introduced?” . .
Source: BFM TV
