A year after his re-election, Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he was determined to “fight” to defend his “major projects”, assuring that his unpopularity and the protests would not prevent him “from moving forward”.

“I continue to fight for the country to move forward,” said the Head of State on his arrival at a summit of North Sea countries in Ostend, Belgium, devoted to the development of offshore wind power. .

“I want to continue to fight on the country’s major projects, the major construction sites”, he added, listing the “climate transition”, the “major public services”, the fight “against long-term unemployment “. He also defended his “results” in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, job creation, reindustrialization.

While more or less numerous demonstrators follow him wherever he is announced, including in Belgium, and while the movements of some of his ministers are severely disrupted, Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed that “disagreements” and “protests” were ” completely legitimate in a democracy”.

“The incivility which consists in covering voices or preventing people from doing their job is unacceptable and therefore it will not prevent the government from moving forward, nor yours truly”, he assured.

A new poll on Monday confirmed the unpopularity of the head of state after the pension reform.

Two out of three French people consider his action disappointing and seven out of ten consider that his re-election “was a bad thing for the country”, indicates this study carried out by the Elabe Institute for BFMTV, conducted from April 22 to 24 with a sample. of 1,002 people, representative of the French population aged 18 and over.

In Ostend, the president recalled that he would go on Tuesday to talk about “the fight against medical deserts, for emergencies” in Vendôme, in Loir-et-Cher.

On the future law on immigration, he did not clarify how he intends to pass it in the absence of an absolute majority in the National Assembly.

After having mentioned a text split into several parts a month ago to facilitate its adoption, he returned this weekend to this position by evoking a single law to toughen the rules and improve integration.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne “will see with the President of the Assembly, the President of the Senate and the political forces what has the best chance of moving forward”, he temporized Monday.

“We must take all the non-legislative measures useful for the country”, he explained, then “find the means to pass a useful text there too for our fellow citizens to better protect our borders, to have simpler procedures and more efficient, and better integrate those who come to work and flee war”.

04/24/2023 17:53:07 – Ostend (Belgium) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP