His “date” did not go unnoticed. If, for 51% of French people, Emmanuel Macron was not convincing during his press conference given this Tuesday, January 16, according to a BVA Xsight survey for RTL, for most media abroad, the tone is set. The head of state seeks to give “a boost to his mandate”, says the Spanish daily El País (center-left).
During this “meeting with the Nation”, broadcast live on six television channels, the French president multiplied the new ideas. So few details were provided, for the Belgian daily The evening (liberal), presidential ideas are similar to those of a well-known figure of the French right: “From the uniform to the Marseillaise, Emmanuel Macron’s new Sarkozy course”.
“Order, merit, work, respect, family, civic-mindedness: this is what was put forward,” summarizes the Belgian newspaper. For good reason, a few months before the European elections, Emmanuel Macron must find a new path, a new image among the population. And to do this, he must appropriate values that seem dear to the French.
Focus on education
“Over the past twenty years, a Le Pen – first the father, Jean-Marie, then the daughter, Marine – has qualified for the second round of the presidential election, except on two occasions: when Sarkozy was candidate. He achieved this from the right and by appropriating the favorite themes of the extreme right such as identity”, remarks El País.
An attempt to “avoid a humiliating defeat against the National Rally”, describes the British daily The Times (center-right), which nevertheless regrets the “old-school vision” of the head of state.
This starts at school. Uniform, limited screen time for children, revaluation of theater and art history… Emmanuel Macron wants the French to once again share “common values”. As recalled by Timesit was while participating in a play that the manager met his future wife, Brigitte, when he was in high school.
According to the German daily South German Zeitung (liberal), the former Minister of the Economy regrets the “loss of the rites and traditions of the Republic which guided” society. The solution, according to him? “And now everyone is singing La Marseillaise!”, quips the newspaper created in Munich, in its title.
“Breaking taboos”
In the second part of a conference which lasted more than two hours, Emmanuel Macron focused on unemployment and the economy. He wants to “break taboos”, headlines the New York Times (center-left). The president thus promised an “Act II of labor market reform”, with “tougher rules when job offers are refused”.
“Macron wants to continue his liberal measures aimed at achieving full employment by 2027,” observes the Brazilian daily O Globo (center-right), although these – and in particular the much-maligned pension reform – led to the resignation of its former Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. “The president’s goal is to reach an unemployment rate of 5%, or 2.4 percentage points lower than the current scenario,” continues the Rio de Janeiro-based newspaper.
This conference was a promise from Emmanuel Macron for several weeks, after a tumultuous reshuffle and seized up by the affair of the private schooling of the children of the Minister of Education, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. Assessment of this “meeting”, according to the Swiss daily The weather : the president wants to “rearm France, civically and economically”, in particular by providing more support to the “middle classes”.
However. “There is a France of a blind spot: all our compatriots who already earn too much not to be helped and not enough to live well,” underlines the Geneva-based daily.