It is at dawn that the President of the Republic comes out. For his first outing in direct contact with the French since the launch of the pension reform, Emmanuel Macron arrived in Rungis (Val-de-Marne) on Tuesday February 21 at 5:30 a.m., accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, and the Minister Delegate for SMEs, Olivia Grégoire.
Between the stalls of wholesalers in poultry, tripe or cutting professionals where he is expected, the Head of State could respond to questions about his pension reform. This flagship project of its second five-year term which provides for a postponement from 62 to 64 years of the legal age of departure arouses hostility in the street and in Parliament.
Since the launch of the reform, Emmanuel Macron has hardly exposed himself, apart from a few trips abroad, during which he delivered sober and laconic messages on this text, or during very structured meetings.
In the first hour of his visit, the president said he relied on "the common sense of the French people" and maintained that we must "work a little longer".
The value of work
This trip to the south of Paris, with "professionals who work from dawn" is also an opportunity to put the value of "work" at the center of its communication, described as a common thread of its action.
The nod is clear to "France that gets up early", Nicolas Sarkozy's leitmotif during his victorious presidential campaign in 2007, also taken up since by the far right.
The presidential camp had seized it through the voice of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to justify the effort required of the French to balance the pension system. "Yes, you have to get up early to go to work," he said in late January.
In search of a way out of the tensions around pensions, the executive is also sketching out a future debate on the relationship to work. "Beyond the question of the length of professional life, we must improve the quality of life at work and find the conditions for good employment", thus argued on Monday, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne.
