The still burning issue of pensions, an upcoming end-of-life law still in draft form, a tense visit to China… Emmanuel Macron’s attitudes, words and actions are scrutinized this morning by press commentators.
Release, first of all, opens its columns to Pierre Rosanvallon. For the historian and sociologist, the pension reform and the behavior of the Head of State reflect an inability to take into account the deep social concerns of the French: “ there is at Emmanuel Macron, he said, an arrogance nourished by social ignorance; (…) democracy can only be exercised if there is a form of ‘communion’ between power and society. However, what is obvious in the case of the pension reform, says Pierre Rosanvallon, it is that Emmanuel Macron barricades himself in the fortified castle of his statutory position. When the divorce becomes too great between these two legitimacies, we enter into a deep crisis. (…) The time of revolutions could return, further warns the historian, or it will be the accumulation of toxic resentment that will pave the way for far-right populism. »
End of life: what consensus?
The file of the end of life now: the Head of State received yesterday, Monday, at the Elysée the members of the Citizens’ Convention on the end of life. He announced to them that he would entrust Parliament with the task of drafting a bill by the end of the summer… but without specifying what will be retained from their proposals.
SO ” what consensus? », wonders The cross. “ Certainly, in an Assembly where the left and the macronists have made social reforms their marker, a large majority should find themselves on the possibility of assisted death. (…) But sure, here, that speed is the best solution. While having voted by a majority for a new ‘end-of-life’ law, the Convention puts forward many other areas of higher priority than assisted dying: equal access to care, better palliative culture, role of doctors, process decision-making group, etc. Caregivers have continued for months to warn about the disparities of a health system out of breath. Nothing is said either about the financing of dependency. That Emmanuel Macron, who failed to implement his pension reform project, either in search of a new political consensus, or, point The cross. But the end of life is too serious a subject to be the subject of this kind of political calculation… »
In fact, observe The echoes : “ the societal as an antidote to the social crisis: what could be better, reports the economic daily, that a popular subject in the polls, expected by its majority, necessarily ‘modern’, horizontal in its design, and likely to lead quickly, to break away from the ball and chain retreat? And too bad if in passing, the end of life becomes a political object. »
Tiger trainer?
Another subject of debate: Emmanuel Macron’s trip to China… Expected in Beijing tomorrow, the head of state hopes to influence Xi Jinping’s position on Russia and the war in Ukraine “, point Le Figaro. “ A high-flying diplomatic exercise “, comments the newspaper. ” Here we are with two behemoths (China and Russia) decided to join forces to establish a new world order rid of the moral and political diktats of the West. A ‘low cost’ international order, in which the big devours the small. In the posture of the trainer, it is doubtful that Emmanuel Macron, even flanked by the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will impress the tiger much. (…) The Frenchman runs into disillusionment with his Chinese counterpart who has just returned from Moscow. “Certainly, still raises Le Figaro“ the red emperor wants to appease the EU not to deprive himself of his market at a time when he is already suffering from American sanctions. But he will not deviate from his trajectory, which aims to establish the domination of his autocratic model throughout the world. The Europeans hope at most to slow down the race. »
Trump in court…
Finally, another president in the hot seat, or rather ex-president: Donald Trump… Today Tuesday, points The world“ he must appear before the New York justice system, where he must be photographed, undergo fingerprinting and then be formally charged (in the Stormy Daniels case). This new stage in the legal troubles of the billionaire should not be the last, raises the evening newspaper, as the accusations against him are serious and numerous “: his role in the assault on the Capitol in January 2021; the concealment of classified documents at his home in Florida; the attempt to obstruct the 2020 presidential race in the state of Georgia; and finally the plot of the fake big voters of the presidential…