Emmanuel Macron seeks to regain control after the adoption of the pension reform. The Head of State was the guest, this Monday, May 15, of 8 p.m. of TF1 to close a media sequence focused on the reindustrialization of the country. The opportunity for the President of the Republic to hammer home his determination, a year after his re-election, and to sweep away several current issues, from the war in Ukraine to purchasing power. Here’s what to take away from this interview.
Ukraine: “Train the battalions that will be in charge of leading the counter-offensive”
Asked the day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s surprise visit to Paris, Emmanuel Macron summed up the French strategy: “Help Ukraine to resist, to organise, when it chooses, a counter-offensive” against Russia and “to build a lasting peace for her”.
He also confirmed that France will “deliver new ammunition” and “train the battalions which will be in charge of leading the counter-offensive” in Kiev, without giving details of the new deliveries to Zelensky’s troops. The French army could in particular train members of the Ukrainian air force. “I believe that discussions are underway with the Americans”, he added, considering on the other hand that to evoke a possible future delivery of fighter planes to Kiev “would be a theoretical debate”.
“Foreign investors see the strength of what we have done”
Emmanuel Macron, who received American billionaire Elon Musk on Monday for his annual “Choose France” meeting, marked by a record 13 billion euros in foreign investment, also welcomed the renewed attractiveness of France: “Investors see the strength of what we have done, the constancy, that is to say even when there are disputes, we do not change, we do not spin, we say not all at once we are going to increase taxes massively, we stop the reforms. We are moving forward and there is a determination.
Emmanuel Macron also stressed that “there were very few strikes” in the private sector during the months of protest against the pension reform. Which makes the President of the Republic say that “there are employees in the private sector, there are entrepreneurs who want to continue to move forward”.
Macron promises “tax cuts” for the middle classes by 2027
The President of the Republic also confirmed that the executive was working on a program of “tax reductions of two billion for households”, which will be concentrated on the middle classes, “French people who work hard, who want to raise their children and who today, because the cost of living has risen, because the dynamic of wages is not always there, are struggling to make ends meet. The Head of State did not specify the timetable, but promised that the site would be launched by the end of the five-year term “when the budgetary trajectory allows it”. “This is what will allow people who work, who are middle class, to have in a way a greater amount of life left over for them”, launched the Head of State, who “asked the government to work there.
Inflation: “Put pressure on large retail groups”
Asked about the effectiveness of the “anti-inflation quarter”, which is the subject of a battle of figures between Bercy and UFC-Que Choisir, the head of state did not rule out extending the device, if necessary, and said he was ready to “put pressure on large distribution groups when we see that they are playing a little on the margins”. The government must soon bring together “around the table” all the players in the sector “to try to lower certain prices in order to support our compatriots”, specified Emmanuel Macron, who hopes that food inflation will be “absorbed by autumn”.
Retreats: “Everyone got away with it”
While the unions, united since the beginning of the mobilization against the pension reform, are continuing the protest, and the law was promulgated on April 14, the Head of State continues to assume his choices: “This reform is necessary because it creates more wealth […] We cannot redistribute money that we have not produced ourselves. Otherwise, we’ll borrow it from the banker.”
Asked about the controversial use of article 49.3 to have the text adopted in the Assembly, Emmanuel Macron castigated, without naming them, the Republican deputies: “Everyone has gone off the rails because the reform is unpopular. including people who, in Parliament, had campaigned in the presidential elections, bravado behind the 65 years. They had all campaigned for that. They said the opposite when they were in Parliament, nobody wanted to take responsibility.”