Three days before the first round of the legislative elections, Emmanuel Macron is sparing no effort to criticize the left-wing alliance formed by the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) and led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The day after a trip to Seine-Saint-Denis, during which he spoke to young people and dismissed the National Rally (RN) and Nupes back to back, Mr. Macron continued in this direction on Thursday, June 9 , during his trip to the Tarn.
The President of the Republic castigated the “extremes” who “propose to add crisis to the crisis by returning to the great historical choices of our nation”, asking the electorate to grant him “a strong and clear majority” to the legislative ones. “I want to alert the French to the importance of the choice they will have to make (…). The election of deputies is decisive. The balances that will emerge in the Assembly also depend on the destiny of France and the daily life of everyone. This is why, according to Mr. Macron, the next few days “represent a serious moment for France”.
Due to the breakthrough in the Nupes polls, neck and neck in the polls with the presidential majority, Mr. Macron attacked without naming them this coalition and the RN of Marine Le Pen, who want, according to him, “backtracking on alliances that, like NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization], provide collective security and protect peoples” as “[he] talks with Russia that is slaughtering civilians in Ukraine.”
“Weakening the unity of the country”
“The moment we are living in is a crucial moment, the last few months have accelerated things”, insisted Mr. Macron during his speech, referring in particular to the “geopolitical disorder”, the “disorder of the living”, the “climate disorder” or “social and values disorder”.
“Everything is happening as if the order in which we live, this whole order is coming undone,” continued the head of state. This gives our compatriots the impression of losing control and having this feeling of vulnerability, sometimes of great swing. For Mr. Macron, “faced with this context, the extremes propose to add crisis to the crisis”, added the president, targeting in particular Mr. Mélenchon and Mrs. Le Pen, whom he accuses of “weakening the unity of the country”.
“We can carry out projects, innovate while respecting the balance of landscapes and nature,” he said. But to fight against everything is to decide to weaken the Republic in its ambitions. »
For the Head of State, “there is no social progress” without “created wealth”. “Nothing would be more dangerous than to add to the world disorder a French disorder that the extremes propose”, he insisted. “In this delicate period, France needs not alliances of circumstance, ideas sacrificed for positions, postures, but consistency, competence and confidence”, continued Mr. Macron.
“Submission, disorder, division”
Calling never “to compromise with those who question the fundamental values of the Republic”, Mr. Macron said he wished “for the country deputies capable of uniting with the president”. “We must always prefer independence, order, unity to submission, disorder, division. Choosing a project for the future over the solutions of the past,” he said.
At the beginning of his speech, he paid tribute to all “the elected officials of the Republic” and spoke of the “security forces that protect us”. “Our gendarmes count neither their hours nor their courage to reduce delinquency”, he greeted, believing that “the results are there with the drop in burglaries”.
Referring to the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, in March 2018 in Carcassonne, during a terrorist attack, Mr. Macron said “having forgotten nothing of these moments and this commitment”. “Our gendarmes show professionalism at all times,” he continued, before attacking without naming Mr. Mélenchon and his remarks on the “police who kill”, made after the death of a passenger during a traffic check in Paris.
“I hear words rising. It is normal during an election period, but there are things that I cannot accept, it is that we insult those who risk their lives to protect ours, launched Mr. Macron. For a nation to be united, we must absolutely defend our gendarmes and our police officers. He thus “assured [his] faithful gratitude [to] the forces of order”.
Several priority projects “starting this summer”
He also put forward his proposals and addressed the issue of purchasing power, while inflation reached more than 5% over one year. According to him, his government has already provided “an unprecedented solution”, including “the [tariff] shield which has prevented the price of gas from soaring”. Mr. Macron now wants “fair support from the summer”. The Head of State praised his proposal for an employee dividend to “allow companies that make profits to be able to better share it through participation or the purchasing power bonus”. “Through this mechanism, we will be able to gain more purchasing power through work,” he explained, also promising an increase in minimum retirement pensions to 1,100 euros.
Mr. Macron reaffirmed his wish to put in place “ecological planning as early as this summer to go much faster and much stronger”. An ambition that will go through an “energy transition planning with the territories in a real revolution of our daily life to move, to stay”.
He finally exposed his “method”, saying he wanted to “build the framework of a national method but be able to decline it locally in the 1,200 living areas. (…) Your problems in the Tarn have nothing to do with those of Cherbourg, where I was last week”. “To reorganize the health care offer of a territory, it must be done in consultation with doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, elected officials. As with school, you have to bring teachers, parents of students, elected officials around a table and ask them to build very concrete solutions, ”he continued.
A pension reform “from the summer of 2023”
The Head of State returned to the “National Council for Refoundation” which he wishes to set up “as of the next few weeks”. “We will bring together all the social, associative, political forces, to be able to build the national framework to share the observation and then locally build solutions on the ground,” he said. The President of the Republic wishes “to associate more, to give more freedoms by assuming more investments”.
To be able to “finance these projects”, Mr. Macron believes that the only way is “to move towards full employment and to help return to work all those who are not there”. The Head of State also mentioned the pension reform, which he wishes to apply “from the summer of 2023”. For him, “working longer” is the “only way to finance solidarity for the youngest and the oldest”, he added before closing his speech.
“Distraught”
A few minutes after Mr. Macron’s speech, the leader of La France insoumise (LFI) mocked in return Together!, the coalition of parties (La République en Marche, the Democratic Movement or Horizons) which aims to bring together the presidential majority . During a press conference, Mr. Mélenchon “invited” the Head of State “to find out about the alliance of circumstance that has been formed around him, despite deep differences over age [ legal date of retirement. Macron wants 65, while Edouard Philippe is for 67,” he attacked. For Mr. Mélenchon, “it is not up to the President of the Republic to lead the legislative campaign that his friends are not capable of leading. It’s up to the head of government to do that.”
During his speech, the deputy (LFI) of Bouches-du-Rhône, who does not represent himself, denounced “the feverishness” of the President of the Republic and his “painful tone to bear”. While Mr. Macron criticized Mr. Mélenchon’s remarks on “the police who kill”, the latter regrets that his competitor “didn’t have a word for the hospital workers, not had a word for the diplomats who carried out a massive strike to denounce the destruction of their profession and of the French diplomatic network, not had a moment for the students of the new ENA”. “Nobody insulted the police, but I took the responsibility of denouncing a doctrine of employment of the maintenance of order which culminated in the violence at the Stade de France, the brutalization at the Gare de l’Est and which , in four months, caused four deaths for refusing to comply, ”continued Mr. Mélenchon.
Three days before the legislative elections, he mocked “the panic effect” of the Head of State, which he compared to that “of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing forty years ago”, before the election of Francois Mitterrand in 1981.
