Emmanuel Macron warned French youth against “chaos” and “disunity”, a few weeks after the urban riots, Thursday during his first speech of the start of the school year, on the occasion of the commemorations of the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the town of Bormes-les-Mimosas. As every year, the Head of State spoke on the occasion of this ceremony in this city of the Var where the Fort de Brégançon is located, the summer residence of the Presidents of the Republic.
At the landing in Provence, young people “ready to die for collective freedom”
In a short 13-minute speech, Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the young people who took part in the Provence landings, “ready to die for collective freedom”, before discussing the French youth of 2023. “There is in our young people a appetite for freedom, an idealism that sometimes seeks itself and to which we must respond. Otherwise, this noble aspiration sometimes turns against itself and undermines the foundations of this nation of freedom, equality and fraternity initiated in 1789. “, declared the President of the Republic. “Outside this common field, division and disunity prosper, which paves the way for chaos and injustice,” warned Emmanuel Macron.
The young liberators of 1944 “showed us (that) exercising one’s freedom”, “it is not a frenzy of transgression, it is not a fever to overthrow prohibitions. It is first and foremost a controlled and strong will, capable of assuming the constraints that it chooses”, also declared the Head of State. “And this freedom there, which only exists because it is always and first of all collective, the rights which ensue which are only there because there were first of all duties, this is what that we need to feed our younger generations,” he added.
A speech followed by a walkabout
The death of Nahel, killed by a police officer during a road check on June 27 in Nanterre, was followed by several nights of urban riots in many cities in France. The Head of State then stressed the need to restore authority in the country. The president made no other allusion to the political situation during this protocol ceremony which has become a must for presidential summers, preceding the resumption of the council of ministers by a few days.
Emmanuel Macron then indulged in a walkabout, shaking hands and multiplying the selfies with a generally benevolent assistance, contrasting with the rough exchanges and casseroles of the spring after the forceps adoption of the pension reform. A woman notably questioned him about the situation at the hospital. “Emergencies are always a disaster,” she told him. “We are not giving up the fight,” replied the head of state.
A man then asked him about “the bioethical laws that are coming”: “never lose the sacred meaning of life”. “Don’t worry,” replied Emmanuel Macron, who intends to present a bill on the end of life in the coming weeks. Emmanuel Macron, on the other hand, did not answer a question from the press on Nicolas Sarkozy’s statements on Ukraine.
No words on the “major political initiative”
During his speech, he also did not mention the “major political initiative” that he recently announced in the columns of the Figaro Magazine for the end of August. The Elysée then stressed to AFP that the presidential approach would focus on themes such as ecology, public services, work, order, progress, immigration. The head of state will offer “to the political forces of the republican arc a series of meetings to determine projects on which to walk together”, added the presidency.
Emmanuel Macron then indicated that 2023/2024 would be an important year for France, which will successively host the Rugby World Cup, the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games and will therefore be at the center of world attention. An invitation, between the lines, to seek unity rather than divisions.
However, the political equation has hardly changed for the host of the Élysée. He approaches this new sequence with a modestly reshuffled government in July. The Head of State will be back next week in Paris and will meet his government on August 23 at the Élysée Palace.