Emmanuel Macron, expected in Alsace, leaves in contact with the French to try to turn the page on pensions

To leave in direct contact with the French and the French, after three months of protest sequence in the street against the pension reform, carried out at all costs to its term. Emmanuel Macron will travel to Alsace on Wednesday April 19 at midday, after the Council of Ministers, in order to highlight the reindustrialization efforts led by his government.

Two days after his televised speech intended to launch a new phase of his five-year term, the president will visit the factory of the Mathis company, specializing in wooden construction, located in the small town of Muttersholtz. The Elysée also announced its trip Thursday to a college in Hérault, in order to talk about education.

Hostile reception announced

But during these two trips, the head of state should again be greeted by hostile demonstrators. On Wednesday, the intersyndicale notably called for a rally at noon in the Alsatian locality, asking the demonstrators to bring pans or lids to “be heard better” and show that “the retirement page is far from being turned”.

During Emmanuel Macron’s televised address on Monday evening, rallies and pot concerts were also organized throughout the country, a sign of a protest that continues despite the validation of the reform by the Constitutional Council last Friday and its promulgation by the Head of State in the night that followed.

Again on Tuesday evening, a private trip by Mr. Macron to Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) attracted some 300 demonstrators. But for the macronist camp it is important that the head of state be in contact with the population, at the risk of being heckled. ” It is important “ that he travels in the territories, commented the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, on Wednesday, rejoicing that the President “may be on the ground”, ” in touch with “For “hear a number [de] demands too”.

Since the presentation of his pension reform in January, the president has remained in the background at the Elysée and has focused on the diplomatic agenda, chaining international trips, with the exception of two visits, the one in Jarnac (Charente) at the end of February, and one near the lake of Serre-Ponçon (Hautes-Alpes), at the end of March. On this last occasion, he had been heckled by demonstrators opposed to the extension of the retirement age to 64 years.

Accelerate to reach the milestone of one hundred days

The choice of the company visited on Wednesday by the President of the Republic, which has made full employment, work, reindustrialization and decarbonization of the economy its priorities for its second five-year term, is not a coincidence.

The wood sector is particularly involved in the decarbonization of the building sector. She is “a strategic sector of this reindustrialization of the country supported by the government”, added the Elysée in the press release presenting the trip. It is specified that the company « interview[ient] on several sites for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games » and is “beneficiary of[s plans d’aide] France Recovery and France 2030 ».

“Acceleration” thus seems to be the key word of the sequence that the Head of State now wants to open. During his address to the French, he gave himself a hundred days to relaunch his second five-year term. Among the priority projects that he wants to advance between now and July 14 are that of a “new work life pact” and that of ” progress “ to be carried out in public services, such as education or health.

Thursday, during his trip to Hérault, devoted to school, he could take the opportunity to make new announcements about the remuneration of teachers, according to several sources in his camp.

Whatever happens, the executive is showing its willingness to initiate all-out reforms without delay, a task that promises to be very complicated, since the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, has not managed in recent weeks to expand its relative majority in the National Assembly. It must present its new government roadmap, as mandated by Emmanuel Macron, at the next Council of Ministers, next week.

In receiving employers on Tuesday, the Head of State also asked the social partners to negotiate the new pact including work-related measures, which the government sees as a complement to the pension reform, by the end of this year.