“Authority”, “secularism” and the “role of the State” will be on the menu of a trip by the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, to Essonne and an interview on BFM-TV, Thursday April 18 , to mark his first hundred days at Matignon. The head of government, who was appointed by Emmanuel Macron on January 9, must go to Viry-Châtillon – a town recently marked by the death of Shemseddine, 15, beaten to death near his college –, where he will deliver a speech on “authority at the heart of the Republic”.
“Authority must apply everywhere, for everyone,” government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot declared on Wednesday, announcing this move. The Prime Minister must “detail a very precise action plan on this issue which is expected of all, in continuity with our action since 2017,” she added.
Mr. Attal should notably announce the launch of a broad consultation on violence among minors, desired by Emmanuel Macron. “The emergence of ultraviolence in everyday life, among increasingly young citizens, requires long-term work that involves all stakeholders,” declared the Head of State during the Council of Ministers. Wednesday, according to a participant who spoke to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Four young men, three minors and one adult, were indicted for murder after the death, at the beginning of April, of Shemseddine, beaten near his college for a dispute linked to the sister of two of them . They were all placed in pre-trial detention. The Prime Minister's trip to Viry-Châtillon will also include a judicial component and another on the "role of the school", in particular on the question of boarding schools, AFP learned from a government source.
Crises
Between the farmers' movement, the budgetary slippage, the tremors in the presidential camp after the adoption of the "immigration" law and the constant threat of a motion of censure in the National Assembly, the crises marked the first steps of Mr. Attal in Matignon.
But, in addition to authority and education, subjects which had been at the center of his general policy declaration to the Assembly at the end of January and at the start of his mandate, the Prime Minister also intends to focus on the theme of work , with a new expected reform of unemployment insurance to toughen the conditions, despite the reservations of his camp. In particular, he proposes reducing the duration of compensation or increasing the working time necessary to benefit from compensation in order to “further encourage the return to employment”.
The head of government wants to make the defense of the “working middle class” the common thread of his visit to Matignon. “There is a social movement in the country which has no spokesperson, which does not say its name, which is not qualified as such. It’s the middle class that works. And who has the feeling that she has all the duties, when others sometimes have all the rights,” he explained to Le Monde at the beginning of April.
The Prime Minister will also have to tackle public finances, whose revenues are lower than expected, according to the executive. While this financial situation has caused tensions in the presidential camp – between Mr. Macron and his Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire –, and before a perilous budgetary autumn looms in Parliament for Mr. Attal, the government must find 10 billion euros in additional savings for the year 2024. Then, in 2025, the government wants to make another 20 billion in savings, compared to 12 initially planned, with the objective of reaching under 3% of the product gross domestic in 2027.
In an opinion made public on Wednesday, the High Council of Public Finances on the stability plan for the period 2024 to 2027 nevertheless estimated that the executive's budgetary trajectory lacked “credibility” and “coherence”. In this tense budgetary and political context for Emmanuel Macron, the next few weeks in Matignon will also be marked by the European election campaign, where the list of the presidential camp led by Valérie Hayer is in difficulty compared to that of the National Rally led by Jordan Bardella who prances at the top of the polls.
