For his hundredth day in Matignon, Gabriel Attal defended his record at length, Thursday April 18 on BFM-TV, after promising a rapid response from his government in the face of “the addiction to violence” of part of the youth during of a speech in Viry-Châtillon (Essonne). This broadcast was scheduled after a first regal sequence from the Prime Minister, who announced, Thursday morning, a series of measures and an eight-week “consultation” to deal with the violence of a part of the youth.
Gabriel Attal announced, Thursday morning, the establishment of a “contract of rights and obligations” that parents would have to sign and which would open up sanctions in the event of non-compliance with its provisions. On BFM-TV, the Prime Minister specifies that this contract, the exact outlines of which are referred to the eight-week consultation which will open, would come into force in September.
It’s difficult, however, to know how binding this “contract” might be. The Senate commission of inquiry into violence against teachers, which submitted its report on March 6, had considered this possibility, and finally abandoned the idea of ??a contract to propose the signing of a simple charter. “A contract raises the question of what happens if parents refuse to sign it, while public school is open to all and must accommodate all children, this poses a legal difficulty,” explains to Le Monde. one of the two rapporteurs, Laurent Lafon (Centrist Union, Val-de-Marne).
Among his announcements made Thursday morning to fight against minor violence, Mr. Attal said that “all middle school students will be in school every day of the week, between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., starting with [those in establishments] priority neighborhoods and priority education networks”.
During his interview on BFM-TV, the latter clarified his remarks: “That means that for the next school year, in September, we are going to do the 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule in all the colleges in the city’s political districts , and then we will seek to gradually extend this policy, year after year. »
This measure is currently being tested in 200 colleges. Although not compulsory, it makes it possible to offer students, between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., additional measures (homework help, cultural and artistic education, physical and sports education, school trips). Matignon clarified that it was in any case not a question of extending beyond priority education for the moment.
“I announced that from the next school year, there will be an educational commission. It is the equivalent of the disciplinary council for primary school so that we can take appropriate sanctions, obviously, but in order, from a very young age, to make people understand what the rule is and that there is sanctions in the face,” the Prime Minister explained.
“I also announced that at middle school, the diploma (brevet, CAP or baccalaureate) must now take into account the behavior of the student,” he continued. When we do not behave well, when we attack our classmates, when we disrupt life at school, when we damage school property and do nothing to repair it, we must be sanctioned on your certificate, your CAP, your baccalaureate and have a mention on this subject in Parcoursup. We need to get to this point today to make people understand that the rules are respected and that there are always consequences when we don’t respect the rules. »
“The Keeper of the Seals [Eric Dupont-Moretti] will issue a criminal circular so that, when you are attacked because you do not respect religious principles, [an aggravating circumstance is] considered, as is the case when someone is attacked ‘one because he has a particular religion’, argued the head of government, on the question of authority intersecting with that of secularism.
The head of government notably denounced in his argument “more or less organized groups which seek to carry out Islamist entryism”, which advocate “the precepts of sharia, particularly in schools”.
Asked about another topical subject, the announcement made by the French tire manufacturer Michelin of the “deployment of the living wage on a global scale” for its employees, Gabriel Attal defended the government’s action in terms of power to ‘purchase.
“What I am working on for announcements in the coming months is a system that will make it less expensive for bosses and employees to increase salaries, especially when we are close to the minimum wage,” he said. -he declares. “Once again, we have many more people than in other countries who are close to the minimum wage,” admitted the Prime Minister.
Gabriel Attal reaffirmed that the government will not increase taxes. “I’m not going to tell you that we’re going to start raising taxes after having lowered them. This is not our logic at all,” he replied to the BFM-TV editorialist.
Emmanuel Macron had promised in May 2023 a tax cut of 2 billion euros by the end of the five-year term. On BFM-TV, the Prime Minister assures that this promise “will be kept”. “We can keep the commitment by financing it. That means by putting, in front of the 2 billion, for example a controlled economy that we are doing to be able to make this reduction,” he added. “We have also started work on reducing employer contributions and employee contributions, because we want working French people, particularly the middle classes, to be able to earn more. It can also join this project,” continued Gabriel Attal.
“We are reforming unemployment insurance [the fourth since 2017] for what? We want there to be more French people working,” declared Gabriel Attal, when asked about economic issues. “If we had the same employment rate as the Germans, that is to say if there was the same share of our population working as on the German side, we would have almost no problems balancing our budgets “, he then argued, adding: “The more French people you have who work, the more they pay in social contributions and so do their employers, and [the more they pay] in taxes when they work. »
According to him, this return to employment for more French people requires three levers: “more attractive remuneration”, the question of “the organization of work” and “a social model which encourages work”. He notably defended the conditionality of active solidarity income (RSA) to fifteen hours of activity per week, a measure which has already come into force and extended to forty-seven departments at the end of February, which must become generalized “by at the end of the year “.
But the new unemployment insurance reform project defended by Matignon, which aims for a further tightening of the rules and compensation conditions, is criticized on the left and also criticized in the ranks of the majority.
“Everyone needs to be able to express themselves. We are lucky to be in a country where freedom of expression is absolutely defended. So everyone must be able to express themselves,” said Gabriel Attal, regarding a canceled conference on Palestine.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Rima Hassam had planned to hold a conference on Thursday in a room in Lille, but it was banned by the Northern prefecture after an initial cancellation by the University of Lille which was to host the event.
“You have events which are organized, which are sometimes organized with slogans, which the security services and which a prefecture can consider could lead to a certain amount of violence. And for those, even at a time when security forces are also mobilized in a Vigipirate context, you have decisions that are taken, in this case by the prefecture,” he continued. “If you ask me on the principle of whether I consider that we should prevent political figures from expressing themselves, the answer is obviously no,” concluded the Prime Minister.
“It is, for me, [the vote] probably the most important since the European elections existed,” argued the Prime Minister regarding the vote which is to be held on June 9, without however detailing the program supported by the presidential majority.
Asked about the difficult start to the campaign for the candidate of the presidential camp, Valérie Hayer, left behind in the polls by the head of the National Rally list, Jordan Bardella, Gabriel Attal first replied: “I believe that the French are not yet truly entered the European campaign. The real debate on the Europeans, and I deplore it, I think that it has not yet really started, in particular because the oppositions do not want to talk about Europe. »
“Again, I think that even though we can criticize Europe, and we can come back to it, we have done a lot of things to make it better. No one can say that we will function better if we are outside the European Union. This is what the National Rally and also Reconquest!, Marion Maréchal, Eric Zemmour are proposing: a Brexit in pieces,” he added addressing the far right.
