Counting on the “common sense” of the French and assuming an “angry truth”, Emmanuel Macron defended Tuesday from the Rungis market the increase in the retirement age and initiated a “debate on work”.
The Head of State arrived at dawn, but half an hour late, at his meeting with the “French people who work early”, in the largest fresh produce market in the world, in the Paris suburbs.
He then surveyed for four hours the pavilions of carcasses, poultry, tripe and cheese, sometimes questioned about his highly contested pension reform. A warm-up before the Agricultural Show which awaits him on Saturday, at the end of a week which will have marked his return to contact with the French for the first time since the launch of the government project.
Dressed in a white down jacket, Emmanuel Macron defended the postponement of the starting age from 62 to 64, in the name of safeguarding a system which is a “treasure” and constitutes “the heritage of those who do not don’t have any”.
“Everyone has common sense,” he pleaded to the press. “It is not true to say that we can keep the same ages” from the start, “it does not work”, he added.
“We all know that, living older, there is no miracle: if we want to preserve a pay-as-you-go system, we have to work longer,” the president further pleaded. And “if it’s a lie that reassures, I prefer the truth that annoys,” he said.
“It is common sense that makes the French refuse this brutal and unjust reform”, reacted in the wake of the boss of the Socialist deputies Boris Vallaud.
While the purpose of his reform may have varied in government communication, Mr. Macron reaffirmed that postponing the age must make it possible “to create more wealth for the country”, which will help finance education or health.
“The middle class, we are diving,” throws a professional at him, while another evokes the “pains” linked to the arduousness of his work.
The Head of State responds to take into account “differences”, and tries to explain the arrangements for earlier retirement or retraining.
So far in withdrawal, Emmanuel Macron has been careful not to criticize the demonstrators who marched en masse against his flagship project, or the deputies who debated in the chaos. He soberly called for “calm” and “respect” before the big day of action on March 7, a “legitimate mobilization” but which must reserve “the possibility for each and everyone to continue to work and live”.
With this imposed figure of Rungis, the nod was clear to “France which gets up early”, Nicolas Sarkozy’s leitmotif during his victorious presidential campaign in 2007.
“I assume all the comparisons with my predecessors. President Sarkozy came here when he was campaigning. President Chirac liked calf’s head. President Hollande also came several times,” said Emmanuel Macron.
It was also an opportunity for him to put the “work value” at the center of his communication, described as a common thread of his action. “It is a message of recognition in front of all those who allow France to turn, to live”, he greeted.
“I believe in work”, hammered the president several times, “all the reforms that we do go in this direction”.
Between two stalls, a veal cutting professional complained about the shortage of manpower, believing that there was “too much social”. “People, they sleep, they don’t want to get up at 2 a.m.,” gritted the butcher, provoking a discussion with Insoumise MP Rachel Keke, present in the delegation.
“I do not believe that we need less social: work must continue to pay more”, replied the Head of State, before affirming that “the real debate that we must have in our society is a debate about work”.
In recent days, the executive has sketched out this debate, looking for a way out of the tensions around pensions. On Monday, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne argued that it was necessary to “improve the quality of life at work and find good job conditions”.
As for inflation, another subject of questioning at Rungis, Emmanuel Macron estimated that “the peak” was expected “this semester”. And he put pressure on some major fuel producers, like Total, to make a new “move” on prices.
02/21/2023 12:27:49 – Rungis (France) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
