Macron’s plan for “demographic rearmament”

Faced with a declining French birth rate, Emmanuel Macron made several announcements Tuesday evening during his press conference to remedy this problem.

A first since the Second World War, it was announced almost everywhere in the media this Tuesday. In 2023, France recorded fewer than 700,000 births. Never seen. While the fall in the birth rate was at the heart of media concerns on January 16, the President of the Republic did not skimp on announcements concerning this subject Tuesday evening during his highly anticipated press conference. While the Élysée recently only had the expression “civic rearmament” on its lips to talk about this famous press conference, the Head of State drew out, to everyone’s surprise, “demographic rearmament”.

Objective: revive the birth rate in France. To do this, Emmanuel Macron unveiled two tools: a “new birth leave” and a “plan to combat infertility”. Although he did not give further details on the plan to combat infertility, the President of the Republic was more talkative about “birth leave”.

“After the extension of paternity leave, I deeply believe that the establishment of a new birth leave will be a useful element in such a strategy,” began the Head of State, before specifying: “Paternity leave birth which will replace the current parental leave.” And Emmanuel Macron promises birth leave that is “better paid” than parental leave and which “will allow both parents to be with their child for six months, if they wish”. A leave however “shorter” than the current parental leave “which can sometimes last up to three years and which keeps many women away from the job market”, he underlined.