Barely finished, Emmanuel Macron's interview, Wednesday, March 22, on the 1 p.m. newscasts of TF1 and France 2, was the subject of strong criticism from the opposition. From the left to the far right, via the unions, all denounce the "above ground" sequence of a president who "does not understand anything".
On the left, the opposition quickly denounced the "show of self-satisfaction" of a head of state "in absolute denial". The leader of La France insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, denounced the "traditional marks of contempt" of an Emmanuel Macron who "lives outside of all reality". "The crowd is to the people what the cry is to the voice", added the triple presidential candidate during a press briefing in Toulouse, in reference to the remarks of the President of the Republic, who declared that the "crowd has "no legitimacy in the face of the people who express themselves through their elected representatives": "This reform serves no other purpose than to steal two more years of free life, by being forced into work or unemployment, to millions of people, ”said Mr. Mélenchon.
"It's amazing, he is in absolute denial," reacted the first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure. "I fear that he has put no more explosives on an already well lit inferno", warned the deputy of Seine-et-Marne, in particular by "disqualifying the unions".
The national secretary of Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV) said on Twitter "frozen by the president's demonstration of self-satisfaction", author in her eyes of "contemptuous and even offensive remarks": "If Macron really wanted the gold medal of the general interest, he would have told us more about the latest IPCC report released yesterday and what he intends to do so that the planet is still habitable by our children, "wrote Marine Tondelier.
The national secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF), Fabien Roussel, saw in Emmanuel Macron's interview with journalists "nothing capable of allaying the legitimate anger expressed against retirement at 64". "We call for change, for respect for the world of work and for social democracy," invited the elected official from the North. "We leftists and environmentalists are ready to govern," he added.
Marine Le Pen felt that the president, "an increasingly lonely man", has "confirmed the contempt" of the French. The patroness of the Rassemblement national (RN) deputies in the Assembly criticized Emmanuel Macron for having granted this interview at 1 p.m. and for having thus "symbolically challenged working France (…), thus reinforcing the feeling of contempt " . “He says he respects, but he insults. All the French, all the time,” she added, accusing the president in particular of “anti-parliamentarism.”
At Les Républicains (LR), their president, Eric Ciotti, judged that the sequence was "not up to the political and economic crisis that we are experiencing". According to the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, "the only real announcement of this speech is that the fight against mass immigration is no longer a priority for the government", and "it is a fault".
The leader of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, deciphered on Twitter a head of state "bypassing the Parliament of which he is afraid because he is in the minority there". An Emmanuel Macron "who does not understand anything", observed MP Aurélien Pradié (LR): "He does not understand the immense fractures of the nation. He does not understand that his self-satisfaction is one more provocation. To change nothing, to wait, to tweak, is to play with fire. How can you ignore the French so much? »
The reactions were no less critical on the side of the unions, on the eve of a new day of mobilization convened by all the organizations. "It's lunar, this interview. It's: "everything is fine, I'm doing everything well, nothing is happening in the street", lamented Philippe Martinez, regretting a "contempt" vis-à-vis the "millions of people who demonstrate". " It's serious. There is no answer" in the face of a "mobilization that some say is historic for around thirty years", continued the secretary general of the CGT in front of journalists in Tours, where the CFE-CGC congress is being held, pleading for the mobilization movement to "grow" in the face of an "above ground" president who "becomes a caricature".
"I can't take these lessons of responsibility anymore," added François Hommeril, the boss of the CFE-CGC, at his side. Referring to a "scratched record", the head of the executives' union described a president acting "as if nothing had happened for two months, as if the Earth had stopped turning".
For his part, the secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, had little taste for an exit from Emmanuel Macron, assuring that the trade unionist “had gone before his congress by proposing to increase the durations [de contribution]. He was not followed (…), but he had this desire to make people work more”. "Denial and lie!" The CFDT has a pension reform project. Macron [in] 2019 had understood this, he had taken up our ambition for a universal system. Macron [en] 2023 remakes history and lies about the CFDT to hide his inability to find a majority to vote for his unjust reform, ”launched Laurent Berger on Twitter.
During its congress in Lyon, in June 2022, the management of the CFDT suffered a snub by being forced by an internal vote to toughen its general resolution. The delegates had adopted an amendment stating that "the increase in life expectancy cannot justify an increase in the average age of liquidation" of pension rights, thus taking the opposite view of the initial formulation, which affirmed that "the increase in life expectancy may justify an increase in the average age of liquidation" of pension rights.
