It was his “meeting with the nation” promised following the vote on the immigration law. Emmanuel Macron held a press conference at the Elysée this Tuesday, January 16 in the evening, in order to define the course for the rest of his five-year term. The President of the Republic has made several announcements on the “rearmament” that he wishes to put in place for the country, in order to make France “stronger and fairer”. L’Express looks back at the highlights of the Head of State’s second major face-to-face meeting with the press since his election in 2017.
Macron rejects any “conflict” between private and public schools and defends Oudéa-Castéra
Emmanuel Macron rejected any “conflict” between private schools and public schools in the midst of controversy over the comments of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. The Head of State estimated that his new Minister of Education “made a public statement that was clumsy” on the education of his children in a private school, and she “was right to apologize”, adding that he was convinced that “the minister will succeed in her task with the teachers”.
“I am a child of both schools, as the great authors say. I went to the secular and to the private school under contract, I saw committed teachers there to whom I owe a lot. So, I I think there is no conflict between the two schools to be had,” the president said.
“The Republic is strong in all these systems. What we need is to commit everyone to the same requirements” but “we do not judge people on their individual choices”, he added, affirming that the government would “continue to forcefully attack” unreplaced hours in schools.
Education: unique outfit, regulation of screens, civic instruction
In his introductory remarks, Emmanuel Macron made several announcements on education, one of the government’s major announced projects. First of all, the president confirmed that the unique uniform for students would be tested this year in around a hundred voluntary schools. It could then be generalized in 2026 if the results are conclusive. Emmanuel Macron also announced that he wanted to determine “the proper use of screens for our children, in families, at home and in class”, on the basis of an expert report that the Head of State brought together last week. last.
The Head of State also declared that “from the start of the 2024 school year, civic education will be overhauled. Its time volume will be doubled – one hour per week from the fifth year onwards -, with support from the great founding texts of the nation”. added Emmanuel Macron, who also wants “theater to become a mandatory part of college from the next school year”.
A trip to Ukraine planned for next February
Emmanuel Macron announced that he would go to Ukraine “in February” and that France would deliver 40 new long-range SCALP missiles and “hundreds of bombs” to this country.
He also indicated that France was “in the process of finalizing a security agreement” with kyiv of the type that concluded on Friday between the United Kingdom and Ukraine over ten years, adding that France and the European Union would have ” to take new decisions in the coming weeks and months, precisely so as not to let Russia win.”
A tribute to the French victims of Hamas on February 7
Emmanuel Macron announced the organization on February 7 of a tribute to the victims of the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel. “On February 7, at the monument for the victims of terrorism” located on the Esplanade des Invalides in Paris, “I will pay tribute to these victims alongside their loved ones, their families and all those who want to join us there” , said the president during a press conference.
The head of state recalled that France had “lost 41 of its children” in these attacks and that it had “three more hostages” in the Gaza Strip. “We are fighting step by step with the Israeli authorities, with Qatar, which has a decisive role in this matter, with several other colleagues to free them.”
An “Act II of labor market reform” to achieve “full employment”
A major new law to “achieve full employment” by 2017? The Head of State announced this Tuesday evening an “Act II of the labor market reform” with “tougher rules” in the event of refusal of a job offer and “better support” for the unemployed, during a press conference.
“The government will encourage the creation and resumption of employment with, from next spring, act two of the labor market reform launched in 2017”, which had already seen reforms to the unemployment compensation rules and the implementation of pension reform last year, declared Emmanuel Macron.
A reduction of 2 billion euros in taxes from 2025 for the middle classes
Among the announcements, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron assured that the tax cut of two billion euros that he plans for the middle classes would take place from 2025. This measure has been considered since spring 2023, but its timing exact had evolved over the months, with a possibility that it would be postponed until the end of the five-year term.
The president also called for measures this Tuesday evening to allow people to “earn a better living through work”, and for civil servants to be paid more “on merit”, during a press conference.
Towards the regularization of “number of foreign doctors”
Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to “regularize a number of foreign doctors who sometimes hold our healthcare services at arm’s length”, in order to fight against medical deserts. To “put an end to the scandal of medical deserts”, we must “allow simpler coordination” between community medicine and hospitals, and with the paramedical professions, but also “regularize a number of foreign doctors who sometimes keep our services at arm’s length care”, pleaded the head of state. These doctors are today left “in administrative precariousness which is completely ineffective,” he said.
Still on the health aspect, Emmanuel Macron defended a doubling of medical deductibles, to 1 euro, judging that this increase in the remaining cost was a “good measure” to make social security policy holders more responsible.
A plan to boost the birth rate
While the number of births fell by 6.6% in France in 2023, falling below the symbolic 700,000 mark for the first time since the end of the Second World War, Emmanuel Macron made two major announcements aimed at relaunching the birth rate in France.
Emmanuel Macron first announced the creation of “birth leave” to replace the current parental leave. “It will be better paid and will allow both parents to be with their child for six months if they wish,” said Emmanuel Macron, estimating that the current leave “creates a lot of anxiety because it is extremely little and poorly paid”, and thus creates “impossible situations”. According to the Elysée, the idea is to “unblock the economic and social obstacles to the desire to have children”.
The Head of State also wishes to respond to the increase in infertility – a problem which he described as “the taboo of the century”, and announced “a major plan to combat this scourge will be initiated to enable precisely this demographic rearmament “.