Expected to discuss the challenges of the start of the school year and the hot issues of the moment, Emmanuel Macron was interviewed live from the Elysée in the 8 p.m. news on France 2 and TF1 this Sunday. The Head of State first reacted to the words of Pope Francis, who on a visit to Marseille was harsh on Saturday towards the political class, confronting France and Europe with their “responsibilities” on the migration issue. “The pope is right to call for this surge against indifference,” said Emmanuel Macron, specifying however that France was doing “its part” in terms of welcoming migrants. “We have a social model which is generous but we cannot accommodate all the misery in the world,” he added, repeating the famous phrase of former socialist Prime Minister Michel Rocard.
New aid on fuels
On the burning issue of the rise in fuel prices, the Head of State declared that the government was giving up authorizing the sale of fuel at a loss, which Elisabeth Borne had nevertheless announced a week ago, and asked distributors to “sell at cost”.
“The threat of lowering the threshold for selling at a loss has been brandished. It will not be in Wednesday’s text (in the Council of Ministers, Editor’s note). We are keeping it as a threat,” assured the tenant of the Elysée, adding that the Prime Minister was going to “bring together all the players in the sector this week” to “ask them to do so at cost price”. The president also mentioned new aid to compensate for the high price of fuel, “limited to workers” and the poorest, and which could reach “100 euros per car per year”. It is “limited but much more relevant”, because it will be aimed at “people who work and who need to ride”, and will not go beyond half of French people who earn the least, specified the head of state.
Concerning the rise in food prices, the “60 largest agri-food manufacturers” will be brought together around a negotiating table in order to agree on an agreement limiting their margins, said Emmanuel Macron. “We have large groups who have raised the prices of some of their brands and so we want to put them back at the table,” he said. “Controllers” will carry out checks, he continued.
Niger
On the international level, Emmanuel Macron announced the return “in the coming hours” of the French ambassador to Niamey, whom Paris has so far refused to recall, and the departure of French troops by the end of the year, at the end of a two-month standoff with the Nigerien junta. “We are ending our military cooperation with Niger,” he said.