"We succeed together or we fail together." When his majority doubted, the President of the Republic opted for a unifying speech and a soothing tone, Tuesday evening, at the Élysée, in front of some 300 deputies from The Republic on the march , MoDem and Agir and in the presence of the Minister of Relations with Parliament, Marc Fesneau, the only representative of the government. This time, there is no question of being content with a long speech, but rather listening to the elected officials and answering their questions, on the model of the "great debate", five days before the start of the examination of the pension reform in public session at the Assembly.
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Evoking a “difficult context” , Emmanuel Macron multiplied the calls for “unity” and distilled some warnings as to the risks of the division and the appearance of slingers. "We must remain in the vision we carry that makes our unity: the 'at the same time', the political overcoming," urged the head of state, assuring the deputies of "his pride" . “I ask you for unity. No uniformity. The previous five years broke up on personal adventures. Those who made the platforms of BFM were agents of acceleration of the dislocation, they were never reelected ” , he warned, to the applause of the deputies. “We must continue to bring the overhang to life and not recreate chapels where the left and right wings meet in stereo. We must bring differences to life by acting together. Keep jostling. Our survival is in this capacity. What we achieved two years ago is not a parenthesis, it is the new policy, " insisted Emmanuel Macron, urging his troops to " keep in mind the fundamentals " of their election.
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Asked, pell-mell, on the reform of the institutions, the violence of which the deputies are victims, the small agricultural pensions or even the future text of the law on dependence, the President of the Republic tried to bring answers, while addressing some messages. "These are not the amendments that will give justice to this reform" of pensions, he slipped, while Richard Ferrand, president of the Assembly, had asked deputies to avoid "incontinence parliamentary" . "You have to be responsible," urged the head of state, ordering his majority to "play politics" and "mount the contradictions" of the oppositions.
When you lose a battle, you have to recognize it. When there is a tsunami, you have to assume it.
Emmanuel MacronEmmanuel Macron also took the opportunity to sketch a few mea culpa and bring guarantees to deputies turned against the executive. "I asked the ministers to get personally involved with you," he said, while an elected official, Perrine Goulet, spoke of the difficulty of working with ministerial offices. The president also had to justify himself, ten days after the hiccup around the bereavement leave and the instruction to "show humanity" , which upset his troops. "We are very much interested in knowing the meaning of your sentence," challenged Michel Lauzzana, LREM deputy for Lot-et-Garonne. "I haven't given lessons to anyone, " said Emmanuel Macron. I spoke up for there to be a firewall. When you lose a battle, you have to recognize it. When there is a tsunami, you have to assume it. ”
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After the pension battle, the head of state promised a "breath with a new page" . "I tell you, the end of the five-year period is the royal and the ecology. With a new method, more transparency, better synchronization of government, parliamentary and public life, " he declined, staying the course and announcing the organization of a seminar between the government and the majority, "Around summer" . “The calm of the country will not be built in our immobility but in our ability to give meaning to the results that are coming.” By the presidential campaign of 2022, Emmanuel Macron also wants to identify “some enchantments, five to ten simple subjects and simplistic ” . "We have communicated too much about complicated things ," he lamented. "The key words are 'unity and cohesion' and no longer 'calm and determination'," said a relative of the head of state. It remains to be seen whether these words will be enough to galvanize parliamentarians and re-bond ties. "The tone was right," said one member. “It was a great time. I liked the call to keep shaking things up, ” agrees another.