Teacher salaries: what to remember from Macron’s trip to Hérault

Emmanuel Macron is increasing his travels, a few days after the promulgation of the disputed pension reform and his long-awaited speech. As Europe 1 had revealed on Monday, the Head of State went to Hérault this Thursday to invest the theme of school. The president first wanted to “better recognize and better pay teachers” and announced a salary increase “between 100 and 230 euros net more per month” for all from the start of the school year in September.

Emmanuel Macron offensive on the ground

During this trip to Hérault, the Head of State adopted a different strategy from Alsace the day before. After having suffered the whistles, the noises of pans and the boos in the Bas-Rhin, Emmanuel Macron this time did everything to avoid them. “Eggs and saucepans are for cooking”, launched the president, before multiplying the selfies in the playground of the Louise-Michel de Ganges college with the college students.

A head of state annoyed when he arrived at the school, when the CGT Energie had just cut off the power. “We must separate the disagreement from the incivility”, he slipped, trying several times to be offensive by praising for example his record in front of parents and teachers. Because Emmanuel Macron, who announced an increase in teachers’ salaries, wants to turn the page on pensions. “I have experienced these fluctuations before,” he explains, as if he was firmly convinced that his opponents will eventually move on.

Surprise visit to Pérols

In the afternoon, the president went to Pérols, near Montpellier, for a short trip which was not however planned. This took place in a much calmer atmosphere than in Ganges. The first stage of the president, in shirt sleeves, was held on the very small terrace of a tapas bar in the heart of the alleys of the city center. A funny surprise for the server, Philippe, interviewed by Europe 1. “We were serving, it’s surprising! It’s impressive to see the president in front of us, we’re not used to it, it was a real surprise,” he said.

Then, during a wandering of the head of state in the streets, residents, again surprised, stopped to take a selfie or to shake hands, others to discuss politics. This sequence of exchanges far from the demonstrators was not programmed, assures the various right-wing mayor of the town, Jean-Pierre Rico, even if the elected official recognizes a “half-surprise”.

A minimum salary of 2,000 euros net

The unconditional increase, for all teachers, will be accompanied by an increase linked to new missions based on volunteering. In total, this increase may go “up to 500 euros per month”. “There will be an increase in the base salary, that is to say unconditionally, to already put everyone above 2,000 euros”, indicated the president during a trip to the Louise-Michel college. of Ganges, north of Montpellier, where he met with teachers and students.

“Beyond that, it’s at all career levels that there is going to be a pay increase, including for those who are in the middle or three quarters of their career. So the increase, it will be for the ‘base’, without any conditions, between 100 and 230 euros per month, without working an extra hour, without having an additional task or other, and that at all levels of the career, “he said. he continued.

The “pact” part of the remuneration, conditional on new missions on a voluntary basis, will be added to “this increase in the base”. It “will make it possible to pay even more per month, which will allow teachers to receive up to 500 euros per month in addition”.

President’s reservations on the abandonment of 49.3 suggested by the Prime Minister

President Emmanuel Macron seemed to express Thursday, on the sidelines of a trip to Hérault, reservations about the commitment made by his Prime Minister to no longer use 49.3 outside financial texts. Asked by journalists whether he was no longer going to use 49.3 during the 100 days of relaunch of his priority projects, the Head of State replied: “I am not responsible for the interviews with AFP of the Prime Minister”.

Elisabeth Borne, weakened at Matignon after the use of 49.3 for the adoption without a vote of the pension reform, had promised in an interview with AFP on March 26 to no longer use this controversial constitutional tool, which had fueled the street protest. “The goal I set for the future is not 49.3 outside the financial texts,” she said for the sake of “appeasement”. In this case on non-budgetary texts, the government can only use 49.3 once per parliamentary session. Emmanuel Macron, however, reiterated that the Prime Minister had his “confidence” and that of Parliament, where she escaped a motion of censure with 9 votes.

The CGT cuts the power to the college visited by Macron in the Hérault

The CGT claimed Thursday two power cuts at Montpellier airport and in a college in Hérault, during a trip by Emmanuel Macron to Hérault. “In Montpellier”, the CGT Energie claimed “the sobriety of Montpellier airport, a priori before the president arrives”, told AFP Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the FNME-CGT. The action took place “shortly before 9 am”, according to Fabrice Coudour, who warned of new actions of this type during the visit of the Head of State.

“We claim the cut in the college. There are no others planned, it is really the college that was targeted,” added Mathieu Guy, CGT manager of Ganges. The management of the electricity distribution manager Enedis was not able to confirm these cuts immediately.

“Eggs and casseroles are just for cooking at home,” said Emmanuel Macron

The day before in Alsace, Emmanuel Macron had been violently booed and taken to task during his first walkabout in weeks. A return to the field decided after the promulgation of its highly contested reform, raising the legal retirement age to 64 years. “Eggs and saucepans are just for cooking at home”, commented Emmanuel Macron on his arrival, in a short exchange with the LFI deputy for the constituency, Sébastien Rome, who told him: “the resistance” is “a little far away, you can’t hear it, but it’s there”. “I always go to the front if people are ready to talk”, continued the Head of State, before going to meet the students in the courtyard of the college, temporarily deprived of electricity by a cut claimed by the CGT.

The prefecture bans “portable sound devices”

The day after the “casserolade” which welcomed Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Alsace, an order from the Hérault prefecture banned any “portable sound device” Thursday in Ganges, where the Head of State spoke education . In an area surrounding in particular the Louise-Michel college in Ganges, where Emmanuel Macron made announcements on teachers’ salaries alongside the Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye, the decree of the prefect of Hérault prohibits “the use ” of all ” portable sound devices or emanating from vehicles not duly authorized “.

At the checkpoints filtering the entrances to the Ganges area secured for the arrival of the president, demonstrators who came with pans and fifes (traditional flute) were prevented from passing, the secretary general of the CGT told AFP. Hérault, Mathieu Guy.

A noisy welcoming committee in Ganges

A noisy welcoming committee of a thousand people chanting “Macron resignation” took over the town hall square in Ganges on Thursday, two hours before the arrival of the head of state in this commune of Hérault for a trip devoted to education. “GARDAREM pensions, democracy, the planet” (“let’s keep” in Occitan, editor’s note), affirmed a large banner under a radiant sun, in the middle of demonstrators carrying for the majority of chasubles of the CGT and Unsa unions and CGT flags or USF.

On the balcony of the town hall of this town one hour north of Montpellier, on the foothills of the Cévennes, another banner asked for the reopening of the maternity ward of this town of 4,200 inhabitants now closed. Around 9:30 am, these demonstrators tried to take the direction of the Louise-Michel college, the establishment where the President of the Republic and the Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye should make announcements concerning the start of the school year in September. But they were blocked by a gendarmerie vehicle and a security forces roadblock. Peaceful, the militants called on the gendarmes to join them.

The situation briefly tensed shortly before 10.30 a.m. when, after an attempt to force some twenty demonstrators towards the college, the security forces used tear gas canisters to force the crowd back behind the vehicle acting as a barrier and keep it at a distance, noted an AFP photographer.