It is an appointment that Emmanuel Macron has already, in the past, transformed into a political pre-entry. The Head of State will speak Thursday, August 17, after his summer retreat at Fort Brégançon, on the occasion of the commemorations of the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the city of Bormes-les-Mimosas. Last year, six months after Russia’s attempted invasion of Ukraine, he denounced Vladimir Putin’s “brutal attack” and called on the French “to accept to pay the price of freedom”. .
These ceremonies marking the liberation of Bormes-les-Mimosas on August 17, 1944 have become a must in presidential summers, preceding the resumption of the Council of Ministers by a few days. The Élysée insists on the “studious” nature of the Head of State’s holidays. In the medieval building overlooking the Mediterranean and which has become a presidential resort, he has all the facilities for working.
During these almost three weeks of leave, he has multiplied contacts on the crisis in Niger, where a coup d’etat calls into question the French military presence in a country which has become the pivot of the anti-jihadist fight in the Sahel. According to the Élysée, he met on several occasions with his African counterparts and with President Mohamed Bazoum, overthrown by soldiers on July 26.
Without a miracle solution to circumvent his lack of an absolute majority in the National Assembly, he promised for the end of the month “a major political initiative”. He intends to “try to bring together around a clear and simple project all those who want to find their way, without asking them to join everything” and without offering them to join a coalition, according to an interview published in early August by Figaro Magazine. .
The Elysée then stressed to AFP that the presidential initiative would focus on themes such as ecology, public services, work, order, progress, immigration. The head of state will offer “to the political forces of the republican arc a series of meetings to determine projects on which to walk together”, added the presidency. Emmanuel Macron then indicated that 2023-2024 would be an important year for France, which will successively host the Rugby World Cup, the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games and will therefore be at the center of world attention. An invitation, between the lines, to seek unity rather than divisions even if the year will also be electoral with the European election scheduled for June.
Emmanuel Macron has not ruled out using Article 49.3 of the Constitution to, if necessary, have a major immigration law adopted without a vote. The right-wing party Les Républicains has already warned that it is opposed to the government’s plans in this area, which it considers insufficiently restrictive.
The attitude of the right will be crucial from mid-October when the examination of the 2024 budget begins. Some do not exclude that it could mix its voices with those of the other oppositions to vote for a censure of the government. A high risk of “accidentology” for the executive, had dropped at the beginning of the summer the president LR of the Senate Gérard Larcher.