French government presents broad appeasement plan to overcome crisis

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne presented a government roadmap on Wednesday (26 April) aiming to lay down “concrete solutions” in areas including immigration, ecology, health, and education and appease the nation after fierce protests over a recent pension reform. Read the original French story here.

Due to the mass protests that followed President Emmanuel Macron’s push for his widely opposed pension law, he called for “100 days of appeasement”, entrusting Borne with the task of broadening parliamentary support and drawing up a conciliation roadmap.

Still, the head of government is banking on achieving “majorities on a project by project basis” rather than on a full bill, the office said on Wednesday morning, acknowledging that it will not just look towards the right-wing side of the political aisle.

The government’s lack of majority in parliament is already hurting an immigration bill pushed by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.

The bill will not see the light of day before the autumn and its details still need to be clarified. That said, it is expected to be a balanced text with measures designed to placate the right and the left in the hope of being passed.

But while waiting for this bill to be adopted, the government is not yet prepared to abandon the issue of immigration.

“From next week […] 150 additional police officers and gendarmes” will be mobilised “in the face of increased migratory pressure at the Italian border,” Borne also announced.

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Ecological transition

In its communication, the prime minister’s officer also insisted on the “special place” Borne seeks to devote to the ecological transition.

Also responsible for ecological planning, she announced a bill for developing green industry in mid-May that will be debated in parliament from the summer onwards. Meanwhile, negotiations on the EU’s recently presented Net Zero Industry Act have just begun.

In the presentation, Borne also announced a new forest management strategy and a plan to reduce water consumption to address drought-related challenges.

She also said that support for thermal renovation of housing would be stepped up, while the first bans on energy-intensive home rentals will take effect this year.

The government also wants to facilitate access to housing to tackle various regions’ shortages. A plan for young people will also be drawn up, including a revamp of dilapidated university accommodation.

Education

On the education front, the prime minister has promised a “real transformation” of France’s schools. This includes having short-term replacement staff coming from their assigned schools and stepping up efforts to ensure French and maths support courses are available in primary schools.

To respond to the demands for social justice, Borne is also promising to debate a “bill transposing the agreement between the social partners on the sharing of value” while calling on companies to take action to raise wages.

The threshold requiring a company to have a value-sharing scheme will be slashed from 50 to 11 employees. Above 50 employees, the law will oblige companies with exceptional results to negotiate such a scheme with the social partners.

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Purchasing power and health

Regarding purchasing power, Borne confirmed that the energy tariff shields to ensure electricity bills capped at a certain level would be maintained.

At the start of May, the government will present a bill regulating the digital space to tackle cyberbullying and online fraud and “prevent the exposure of children to pornographic content”, Borne added.

On health, she announced the recruitment of 6,000 additional medical assistants to free up doctors’ working time and to open 2,000 training places for nurses.

“While many predicted immobility and stalemate, the pace of reform has not slowed down,” the prime minister said.

Criticism

In the radical left opposition, La France Insoumise MEP Manon Aubry pointed to the government’s disconnect, saying it “stubbornly carries on as if nothing had happened”.

“This strategy of burying one’s head in the sand in the face of the regime crisis will lead nowhere,” she wrote on Twitter.

According to the president of the Socialist group in the Assembly, Boris Vallaud, Borne’s speech shows “a great misunderstanding”.

“The crisis in France does not have an ‘agenda’ problem. It has a political problem,” Vallaud said.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen was also quick to criticise, stating that “after having exhausted their lies, demonstrated their impotence and emptied the state coffers, Macron and Borne have nothing more to say or propose to the French. There is no longer a government at the head of France, only an administration of current affairs”.

Borne has promised that her government “will continue to seek alliances within the Republican arc”, referring to the parties she views as respecting the Constitution, meaning all but Le Pen’s National Rally (far-right) and radical-left La France insoumise.

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[Edited by Alice Taylor/Zoran Radosavljevic]