Reshuffle, Covid, unemployment: Emmanuel Macron's ways out of the crisis

It's time to pick up the copies. After a month of consultations, Emmanuel Macron completed Thursday evening the cycle started in early June to prepare the last act of his quinquennium. " I believe that the course on which I embarked on in 2017 remains true, " said the President of the Republic in an interview with the regional daily press and published Thursday evening by La Montagne . No question of renouncing therefore, but rather of reconnecting with the thread of a five-year period interrupted by the coronavirus crisis.

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To develop this route which leads him to the presidential election of 2022, the Head of State intends to bet on the “ reconstructions ” of society: social, economic, environmental… It is a question of “ preparing ” for a “ very hard ” economic comeback . He gives himself three priorities: health, old age and young people. Emmanuel Macron has multiplied consultations in this direction throughout the month of June. Thursday, the Head of State closed this sequence with the presidents of the three chambers: Richard Ferrand for the National Assembly, Gérard Larcher for the Senate, and Patrick Bernasconi for the Cese. Arrived at the Élysée with a thick file under the arm each, they gave the president their proposals for the after. They join those of the parliamentary groups of the two Assemblies, the social partners, former presidents of the Republic, the president of the Constitutional Council, economists and the many personalities that Emmanuel Macron met to build the “after”. " Faced with unprecedented crises, an unprecedented response was needed," rejoiced Richard Ferrand at Le Figaro. With this new method, I consider that reinvention is underway ”.

The head of state exposed the first stones Thursday. Main announcements: the organization of a territorial conference from this summer and the probable continuation of regional and departmental elections next year.

"Method fault"

Without commenting on the fate he reserves for Édouard Philippe, Emmanuel Macron also announces that he is putting the pension reform under construction again. " Is it to put in the trash?" No. It would be a mistake, ”he says. But he says he is ready for concessions. Until the very conflicting question of the pivotal age? " I will ask the government to initiate a concertation with the social partners in depth from the summer, " eludes the head of state. Defended by the Prime Minister to balance the accounts of the new points system, this measure was aimed at unions. And even the President of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, who, in a letter addressed to the Head of State also talks about 80 km / h, the carbon tax or the reduction of housing aid for students. So many reforms carried out by Édouard Philippe. If such measures " have become irritating to the point of mobilizing a fringe of our fellow citizens (...) it is not impossible that it is by default of method, rather than by their content ", writes Richard Ferrand.

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Having noted this, the Head of State can now tackle the major reshuffle. “ A government is a mikado. As soon as you move something, it becomes complicated, ”observes a relative of the President of the Republic. Within the executive, we aim for the date of July 8 for the first Council of Ministers of the new government, with a speech of general policy in stride. But Emmanuel Macron likes to take his time. And above all, do not give in to pressure. Even less to those of the ministers who have been deployed in the press in recent days to ensure that they would be able to keep their position or occupy another one. " It is bad knowledge of Emmanuel Macron to think that he can be influenced by statements in the press or pressure shots by dispatch. With him, all of this is completely counterproductive, ”assures a fellow traveler from the start.

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Polls, on the other hand, is something else. Especially when they concern a prime minister whose fate is pending. Since confinement, the popularity of Edouard Philippe has continued to grow, especially among the moderate right-wing electorate. This polling push found its translation in the ballot boxes of Le Havre, where Édouard Philippe was largely re-elected mayor. Difficult under these conditions to part with it. " We have a relationship of trust which, I believe, is historic ", underlines Emmanuel Macron who refuses to send his Prime Minister back to the past: " On the contrary (...) What we managed to do for three years is new, with a lot of trust and coordination, contrary to what has been written ”. From there to extend his lease at Matignon ... " The new path is (...) new methods. Behind, there will be a new team . ” Thursday evening, the two men were to talk one-on-one during a dinner. The opportunity to set in motion the great machine of the reshuffle.