MoDem president François Bayrou, a close ally of Emmanuel Macron, pleaded on Monday for “healing” and “reconciliation” after the pension crisis, noting that CFDT leaders were open to discussions with the government.
“We are entering a new phase marked by the need for healing and reconciliation,” he said on the LCI channel as the unions hope for May Day demonstrations of historic proportions on Monday throughout France.
“The head of the CFDT Laurent Berger and just now (…) the one who will succeed him, Marylise Léon, both said that they would not do the policy of the empty chair”, a- he greeted.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne must send invitations to the unions in the coming days to resume the dialogue.
François Bayrou also repeated that, according to him, the pension reform, now adopted by Parliament and promulgated, had been poorly explained. And pleaded for a change in the method of government.
“Public opinion, the French, but I believe this is not specific to France, no longer support decisions being taken far from them without having the reasons for these decisions in their hands”, he said.
“The State in its organization of senior civil servants and in its usual thinking has gotten into the habit of making its decisions by saying to itself that if they are passed in Parliament, the French will follow”, he added, assuring that ‘Emmanuel Macron shared this analysis.
He felt that the National Council for Refoundation (CNR), an organization he chairs, was the only tool to try to renovate the way of governing. This CNR, created by the Head of State, organizes broad consultations to find solutions to national or local problems.
François Bayrou finally regretted the postponement of the presentation of the immigration bill, for lack of a majority in Parliament, but considered that “there is no drama” if it is resumed in the fall.
“You know very well that French society has a problem, a question, a questioning, sometimes an obsession on this issue of immigration,” he said. “If the country’s officials evade these questions, then in a way they lose.”
05/01/2023 09:56:01 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
