Jacques Serais with AFP
modified to
1:29 p.m., March 21, 2023
Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that he did not intend to dissolve the National Assembly, reshuffle the government, or call a referendum on his pension reform to put an end to the protest, participants in a camp meeting told AFP. Presidential at the Elysée.
Towards a “change of method”?
“No dissolution, no reshuffle, no referendum”, summarized one of these participants at the end of this meeting bringing together the tenors of the government and the heads of Macronie. “Not to date,” confirmed a minister who was present.
According to one of these participants, the Head of State asked his troops to make “within two to three weeks maximum” “proposals” for a “change in the method and agenda of the reforms “.
The Head of State consults his entourage
Since Tuesday morning, Emmanuel Macron has gathered around him the Prime Minister, several members of the government as well as the presidents of the majority parliamentary groups and the presidents of Renaissance, Modem and Horizons. He has lunch with the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher and the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet before inviting all the parliamentarians of the majority to the Palace this Tuesday evening.
Emmanuel Macron will speak at 1 p.m. tomorrow
After the adoption of the pension reform with the rejection of two motions of censure, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, will give an interview this Wednesday, at 1 p.m., to the television news of TF1 and France 2.
But don’t expect big announcements or any backsliding from the President. The exercise will mainly concern the explanation, the justification of 49.3, the need for this pension reform. It will be a question of explaining, but above all of not backing down.
“Emmanuel Macron is not addressing the leftists who are blocking the country, but the French,” said a presidential party executive. The tenant of the Élysée wants at all costs, in this situation, to escape the trap of immobility. This is why a new strategy could well take shape in the coming weeks at the Élysée. The possibility of governance by decree is mentioned in high places. “The French elected us to apply our program. The President does not see the problem”, assumes a very close to the President.