Gabriel Attal will receive Jordan Bardella this Friday at the Hôtel de Matignon, in Paris.
The Prime Minister is continuing his talks with the country's "driving forces", which began this Thursday, to prepare in a "collective" manner his general policy declaration of January 30, which he presents as a response to the expectations of the "middle classes".
The secretary general of Force Ouvrière, Frédéric Souillot, and the senator president of the centrist Union group Hervé Marseille will also be received this Friday.
“Act and move forward,” the Prime Minister wrote on X with a photo of the government gathered around him at Matignon.
This work aims for “immediate implementation of the projects, as soon as they are presented by the Prime Minister to Parliament”, for “concrete and rapid results”, we underline Matignon.
Act and move forward.
At work with the members of my Government.
🇫🇷🇪🇺 pic.twitter.com/D8f6vkJXMp
— Gabriel Attal (@GabrielAttal) January 18, 2024
This meeting is being held two days after a long press conference by Emmanuel Macron during which the president hoped that the government would demonstrate "effectiveness" on several subjects: work, birth rate, school or health.
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After this working meeting which lasted almost two hours, the new Prime Minister continued his meetings with political forces, trade unions, employers and associations of elected officials, to “feed” his speech to Parliament.
He also plans new meetings on the ground.
The head of government received the president of Medef Patrick Martin because, he wrote on X, “merit and work must always be better rewarded”.
Patrick Martin pleaded for a strong Europe “which will not exist without strong companies” and underlined the need to fight against the proliferation of standards.
François Asselin on behalf of the CPME had a “fluid” exchange with Gabriel Attal, suggesting that future birth leave be passed to the “test” of SMEs, as well as a “raise of the threshold of 50 employees, for certain corporate obligations , to 100 employees.
Ciotti claims to have given “a speech of firmness”
Gabriel Attal then spoke with the right represented by Éric Ciotti, president of the Les Républicains party, Bruno Retailleau and Olivier Marleix, respectively leaders of LR senators and deputies, whose voices are crucial in the National Assembly in the absence of absolute majority.
Éric Ciotti said on leaving that he had given a “firm speech” to Gabriel Attal, in “return for the somewhat aggressive methods of the president” after the “poaching” of the Sarkozyist Rachida Dati, who became Minister of Culture.
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In particular, he threatened the government with a “reaction” if it resorted again to article 49.3 of the Constitution on budgetary texts next fall.
The former socialist Prime Minister who rallied to the macronie Manuel Valls saw in this arrival of Rachida Dati a “triple provocation” of the president: with regard to LR, with regard to justice because Rachida Dati is “indicted for corruption” and towards the world of culture which has “the feeling of being taken hostage”.
Work and wages
Deprived of an absolute majority, the Prime Minister, who also spoke with the President of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet, will not ask for a vote of confidence at the end of his speech.
The left has promised a motion of censure but it has little chance of being adopted, with the right not considering supporting it.
Gabriel Attal intends in this speech to “valorize the work of the middle classes” who “wait for us to act for them to rearm our public services”, “ensure security” and “act for the ecological transition”.
Read alsoAfter Macron's announcements, the Attal government faces the test of "long term"
Received Tuesday afternoon, the general secretary of the CFDT Marylise Léon said she had highlighted the importance of the “life at work pact”, “purchasing power”, “the gender equality index” and the need to “strengthen social dialogue”, several months after the forceps adoption of the pension reform.
Her CGT counterpart, Sophie Binet, who came to Matignon on Wednesday evening, hammered home the need to increase wages, “the first priority today for the French”.
Thursday evening, Gabriel Attal spoke to the executive office of Renaissance.
The new Prime Minister called on the presidential party to “assume a form of radicalism”, citing labor projects, or the themes of security and the environment.
2023 was “a difficult year” and in 2024 it “is not destined to improve,” the Prime Minister said.