Emmanuel Macron will give an interview on Monday to the “13 hours” of TF1 and France 2, from Noumea where he is traveling, the channels announced on Saturday July 22 in a press release.
This interview comes after the Thursday reshuffle of part of the government, and after the Head of State drew up Friday in the preamble to the Council of Ministers an initial assessment of the “hundred days” decreed after the highly disputed pension crisis.
The president is due to fly away on Sunday for a week in Oceania, with stops in New Caledonia, then in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. He has just completed a long political streak in France, after letting the suspense hover for several weeks over the maintenance at Matignon of Elisabeth Borne, in whom he finally renewed his “trust”.
After intense negotiations, Mr. Macron also made eleven changes to the government team, with the entry of eight new ministers and the promotion to education of Gabriel Attal, who will have to prepare for the start of the school year.
The opportunity to send a warning to his ministers on Friday, whom he asked to be “exemplary” and above all to bring “efficiency” rather than “speaking in the post”. Because, for him, “a good part of the democratic crisis is linked to the fact that decisions do not arrive quickly enough in the lives of our compatriots”.
Back-to-School “In-Depth Answers”
On the “hundred days”, supposed to bring “appeasement” to the country after the pension crisis, the head of state drew a positive assessment of several major areas such as work, republican order or public services. With a “clear course” as a watermark, he says, “that of the independence of the country”, thus declining his mantra around the sovereignty of France.
But he was also confronted at the end of June – beginning of July with several nights of urban riots, following the death of young Nahel M. killed by a policeman in Nanterre. In this regard, Mr. Macron renewed his promise to provide “in-depth answers”, referring to the start of the school year.
As the summer break looms, and a last council of ministers on Wednesday by videoconference before the return of this exercise on August 23, the executive has yet to put the finishing touches to the presentation of its “ecological planning”, which will be unveiled at the end of August.
But the main challenge ahead is budgeting, a challenge that is as technical as it is political. The president has previously warned that when it comes to public finances, the “framework” will be “demanding” and “order” will prevail. He would thus join a strong demand from the Republicans, a pivotal group in the Assembly, where the executive does not have an absolute majority. Because the LRs are already raising the specter of a motion of censure likely to overthrow the government if they consider the budget too lax.
