Alexis Delafontaine, with AFP (Photo credits: Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
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7:59 p.m., April 18, 2023
Emmanuel Macron is going to Bas-Rhin on Wednesday for a trip on the theme of reindustrialization and to reconnect with the field after his speech supposed to turn the page on the pension crisis. The head of state is expected in the small Alsatian town of Muttersholtz, the Elysée announced on Tuesday. He will visit the Mathis company there, specializing in wooden construction and working on several sites for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, said the Elysée.
In Saint-Denis on Tuesday evening, Macron arrives under the boos of demonstrators
On the eve of this trip, President Emmanuel Macron goes to the Maison d’éducation de la Légion d’honneur in Saint-Denis, near Paris. His opponents were waiting for him, and the head of state arrived under boos. About 500 people gathered in front of the building. Among them, trade unionists, yellow vests and activists against pension reform.
The timber industry, a “strategic sector” according to the presidency
The wood sector is particularly involved in the decarbonization of the building sector. It is “a strategic sector of this reindustrialization of the country supported by the government”, added the presidency. The intersyndicale has already called in a press release for a rally at noon in Muttersholtz, asking the demonstrators to bring pans or lids to “be heard better” and show that “the pensions page is far from be turned”.
After having promulgated at the beginning of the weekend the very disputed reform on the 64 years, President Macron gave himself Monday, during a solemn address, one hundred days to relaunch his second five-year term, mired in the political and social crisis.
Another trip Thursday in the Hérault
Among the priority projects he wants to initiate by July 14, that of a “new pact for life at work” to be negotiated with the social partners, and that of “progress” in public services such as the education or health. Thursday, he must also continue with another trip, in Hérault, devoted to school, as Europe 1 revealed on Monday. According to several macronist sources, he could on this occasion make announcements on the remuneration of teachers.
Several members of the executive or the presidential entourage encouraged Emmanuel Macron to reconnect with the French on the ground after three months spent largely in withdrawal at the Élysée. “It’s important” that he travels in the territories like Wednesday, said on France 3 Alsace his Minister of Transport Clément Beaune, rejoicing that he “can be on the ground”, “in contact”, for “hear a number of those claims too”.