It is an economic and social reform that Emmanuel Macron intends to erect as a real political object just over six months before the presidential election of 2022.
While the implementation of the unemployment insurance reform is scheduled for Friday 1er October, the Head of State wants to make it a real marker of his balance sheet. After defending this flagship measure of its five-year term, in February 2018, as an element of security in the face of the precariousness of the job market – in return for the flexibility offered by the work orders – the tenant of the Elysée presents it now as a way of encouraging the unemployed to return to work. With the values of “Merit” and of “The effort” inducted as a key axis of his speech.
This reform, which tightens the rules for calculating unemployment benefit, is based on “A simple will”, he explained, on July 12: “In France, you always have to earn a better living by working than by staying at home, which is not always the case at present. ” A tirade, in which the secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, had detected “A little bit of populism”.
“It’s a cultural struggle”
But far from softening his remarks, Mr. Macron then reaffirmed his conviction to defend the implementation of this reform. “We must ensure that it is never more profitable not to work than to work”, he launched, on September 16, during a speech to the main organization of the self-employed – craftsmen, traders, liberal professions – at the Maison de la Mutualité. Before continuing: “We must re-engage the whole nation in this culture of work and merit, it is a cultural struggle. “
A way of sending a signal to public opinion, especially its most conservative fringes, particularly sensitive to the theme of the fight against “Assistantship”. “There is an electoral ulterior motive on the part of Emmanuel Macron, which is part of his more general strategy of capturing the right-wing electorate, analysis Jérôme Fourquet, director of the opinion department at IFOP. With this measure, he speaks above all to small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, who are for the most part faced with a labor shortage, even though in this period of exit from the crisis, the unemployment rate remains high, around by 8% [de la population active]. “
A “Paradoxical situation” in the eyes of the Minister of Labor, Elisabeth Borne, consisting in having companies “Who fail to recruit” and “Unemployed people who cannot find a job”, which justifies, according to her, the implementation of the unemployment insurance reform.
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