D-day for Gabriel Attal.
Appointed on January 9, the new Prime Minister delivered his general policy speech to the National Assembly on Tuesday.
Work, health, education… He presented for more than an hour the priorities of his government, a balancing act at a time when farmers are blocking the roads around Paris.
Here's what you need to remember.
Read alsoRelive Gabriel Attal's general policy speech
Hand extended to oppositions
“My generation, our generation, sees its world turned upside down; it is prey to doubt, about its identity, about who we are, about our social model,” the Prime Minister began by recalling.
But “our nation will never be a nation that suffers, neither yesterday, nor today, nor tomorrow”, he insisted, inviting us to “confront in order to move forward”.
“We will continue to move forward, not through fine words, but through actions,” assured the Prime Minister, who urges France to “take its destiny back into its own hands”.
In the midst of the farmers' movement, the Prime Minister estimated that “our agriculture is a strength”.
She “doubts and waits for answers”.
“We will be there without any ambiguity,” he assured, praising a “French agricultural exception”.
Gabriel Attal also addressed middle-class French people, “too rich to benefit from aid but not enough not to count”.
“I want to help respond to them (…), so as not to let them give in to sirens that will only lead to chaos,” he declared.
The Prime Minister also addressed the oppositions, to whom he declared that “(his) door will always be open” and that he “will never give up dialogue” with them.
He launched “four calls to action”: for work, for public services, authority and citizenship, and the environment.
“Dismicardize France”
On the question of work, the Prime Minister declared that the government will act “so that the professional branches which continue to pay below the minimum wage increase these remunerations”.
“We must dismantle France,” he judged.
“We must change a system which has led us, for decades, to concentrate our aid, our exemptions, at the level of the minimum wage,” declared the head of government.
“As of the next finance bill, we will begin to reform this system,” he continued.
To “unlock access to work”, the Prime Minister announced that the conditioning of the RSA to 15 hours of activity for integration will be generalized in all departments by January 1, 2025. He also declared that unemployed people at the end of their rights would no longer have a specific solidarity allowance allowing “without working, to validate quarters of retirement” and would switch to Active Solidarity Income (RSA).
“The week in four days” tested in administrations
The Prime Minister also asked his ministers to “experiment with a four-day week, without reducing working hours” in “their central and decentralized administrations”.
“I want that from now on, in the State, administration maintenance staff who wish to be able to work the same hours as everyone else, that is to say office hours,” he also insisted. the head of government, wishing to “set an example when it comes to the organization of work”.
Referring to the housing crisis, the Prime Minister declined several measures, in particular the simplification of access to the MaPrimeRénov' system.
30,000 new homes will also be created “within three years” in “20 areas committed to housing”.
Gabriel Attal also said he wanted to “debureaucratize France”.
He promised to evaluate which standards can be “removed” or “simplified.”
“Rearming our health system”
The Prime Minister reiterated the President of the Republic's commitment to “rearmament” France.
Calling for “strengthening national sovereignty”, he first announced that state medical aid will be reformed “before the summer”.
Also wishing to “rearm our health system”, the Prime Minister announced that an emissary will be appointed to seek doctors abroad.
Gabriel Attal also said he would like patients who do not show up for a medical appointment to “pay”.
He also announced a bonus of 800 euros for school nurses and an increase in their salary of 200 euros net per month on average.
Work of educational interest for minors
At school, he called for a “shock of knowledge”.
To do this, level groups will begin to be set up in colleges “as early as this year”, he declared.
Repeat grades will also be “in the hands of the teaching team”.
Equivalent to work of general interest, work of educational interest will also be created for minors under 16 years of age.
“We must return to a simple principle:
you break, you repair, you dirty, you clean, you challenge authority, you learn to respect it
,” he said.
An ecological civic service
On the chapter of ecology, the Prime Minister opposed degrowth, which means “the end of our social model”.
“I will never accept it,” he insisted.
Conversely, he called for building “a popular ecology”.
“Nuclear power is a source of French pride,” he also said, assuring that it would continue to increase the power of our nuclear fleet.
An ecological civic service will be offered to 50,000 young people ready to commit to the climate “by the end of the five-year term”.
An emergency fund for wine growers
The Prime Minister then returned to his measures to “rearmament agriculture”.
He announced that all CAP aid will be paid to operators by March 15.
An emergency fund will also be created before the end of the week for viticulture, particularly in Occitanie.
Read also Gabriel Attal's announcements for farmers
The Prime Minister also said he was launching a control plan for product traceability to “guarantee fair competition”.
The law on the end of life examined “before summer”
A draft law on the end of life – one of the most intimate and delicate questions there is – will be examined “before the summer”, the Prime Minister also announced.
“Times are troubled, doubts are numerous, but there is hope,” he concluded.