The first time, everything was sorted like clockwork. On December 5, 2023, an independent organization, the OECD, slapped France for its educational results, via the Pisa ranking. Gabriel Attal, then Minister of Education, anticipated: he had been preparing his “shock of knowledge” for weeks. “We must not just take it,” he confided. “In the process, there must be a start. I gave the Knowledge Requirements mission eight weeks, so that the measures that I will announce will have been concerted.” The same day, he presented his action plan in a major press conference.
Tuesday March 26, it is INSEE’s turn to slap France for the scale of its deficit, much higher than forecasts. Gabriel Attal, now Prime Minister, has anticipated: he has already scheduled his 20 Hours on TF1 for several days. Always with the idea of doing judo and transforming bad news into a political opportunity. Except that the surprise effect no longer works like the first time and, above all, that the Prime Minister’s costume does not look at all like a kimono.
The choice of moment in fact blurs the reception of the message, as is the case in the life of a head of government. Gabriel Attal announced Wednesday evening March 27 (for his fifth 20 Hours on TF1 in less than twenty months) a new reform of unemployment insurance, necessarily giving the impression that it responded primarily to financial considerations, given the state of public accounts. It is no coincidence that he had let Bruno Le Maire participate in this same newspaper on the first channel a few weeks ago, to announce ten billion savings, even if the Prime Minister made sure to claim this reduction yesterday. : “I made a historic decision”. But his priority is different: he first wants to show public opinion that he is fundamentally reforming.
At the seminar, a few hours earlier, Gérald Darmanin had been the first to speak after the ministers concerned, to warn against a “Jospinization” of sinister memory – good results in terms of jobs and yet elimination from the start. first round of the presidential election, in 2022. Other ministers are worried about the turn of events. “The right entry on the reform of unemployment insurance is not budgetary, we cannot tell the French that we are going to reform because we want to save money,” notes one of them.
Judoka’s slalom
Gabriel Attal wants to build a brand, which would embody a few key words: a clear line, authority (“I decided that the State was going to file a complaint for defamation against the student who threatened the principal of the Maurice-Ravel high school “, he opportunely indicated on TF1), duty. And also work, a term repeated endlessly, and again on Wednesday evening. He has his abaya theorem, a quick measure (“I tell you, I have decided,” he said on August 27, 2023), which shows that politics can still act and which strikes public opinion – a measure which he considers has done more to respond to the disintegration of society than the 200 brigades that Gérald Darmanin regularly announces and installs on French territory.
With unemployment insurance, the judoka must slalom: offer as little leverage as possible to the unions before the Olympic Games, but mobilize his electorate before the Europeans. This is why this reform promoting work is being pushed forward, when that of the civil service will be carried out “fully, but after the summer”, we tell Matignon. Because work is also a means, believes Gabriel Attal, of putting the RN in difficulty, as the positions of Marine Le Pen’s party are not very homogeneous on the subject. A Prime Minister cannot be blamed for playing politics; but we could blame him for failing in economics.