“Everything is going very well”: Elisabeth Borne assured Thursday that she had “a very fluid relationship” with Emmanuel Macron during a trip devoted to the presentation of a plan on early childhood, which seems to confirm a shift to the left of the Prime Minister.
The update comes after several days of hesitation within the executive couple, against a backdrop of debate on the response strategy to adopt against the National Rally. It also signals the head of government’s desire to stay at Matignon, while speculation about a reshuffle and its replacement continues.
“What matters to me is that we act to meet the priorities of the French,” she said, believing that “the rest is a storm in a teacup”.
During a trip to Angers and Laval under the sign of “equal opportunities”, the Prime Minister explained that she wanted to lift the brakes on employment, such as childcare, for which she plans to create 200,000 crèche places by 2030, despite the glaring shortage of staff in this sector.
To speak of early childhood, “is to affirm that the fight against inequalities does not wait, that they must be dealt with from the first months of life”, she developed Thursday at the conclusion of a National Council of the refoundation (CNR).
As for the development of childcare, “it is a barrier to employment that is rising, especially for women, it is the assurance that everyone will be able to benefit from a childcare solution for their child, whatever his income, wherever he lives”.
By investing in the social subject, Ms. Borne intends to rebalance a blurred political image after a year of various reforms, but above all dominated by that of pensions, deemed “right-wing” by public opinion.
For the former prefect from the left, who had known Matignon 25 years ago as an adviser to Lionel Jospin, it is thus a question of playing a social-democratic score, even if it means assuming nuances with the head of the ‘State.
Thursday, in a crèche with a vocation for professional integration which allows people looking for work to have priority and to benefit from very long time slots, Elisabeth Borne took the time to settle down among the children and to their chirping, a breath away from the battle in the Assembly around a proposal to repeal the pension reform led by the oppositions.
The protest, however, reminded her near the prefecture of Laval where she had lunch, the scene of a gathering of a few dozen demonstrators.
The stage in the Pays de la Loire, a region close to full employment that the government promises to the whole of France, also aimed to turn the page on this conflict and to present, in addition to the early childhood plan, the bill France Work. The latter must reorganize the public employment service as part of the mission that Emmanuel Macron entrusted to him by July 14.
“I have a roadmap and I’m sticking to it,” assured the Prime Minister on Wednesday in Ouest-France.
After having narrowly escaped censorship, and having been contradicted by the Head of State on 49.3 or the immigration law, Elisabeth Borne intends to maintain herself despite the difficulties.
Being Prime Minister, “it’s the privilege of a political life, it’s the opportunity to change things (…), to respond to the challenges of the present, while preparing for the future”, she assured May 17 just after blowing out his first candle at Matignon.
The duration of his lease rue de Varenne, however, animates the conversations of the majority.
“I don’t see how we can still hold on with Elisabeth Borne like that. There is a kind of general atmosphere where we know that there is going to be a reshuffle, we are waiting too much” and, ” suddenly, we are not moving forward”, lamented in recent days a parliamentarian from the majority.
An executive adviser summarizes: “The question is: do we want to give real political support” to government projects?
06/01/2023 18:05:16 – Laval (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
