Macron stands his ground on reforms for French economy amid protests
PARIS French President Emmanuel Macron declared Thursday that strikes and protests will not prevent him from overhauling the nation’s economy — comments that came as train workers, hospital staff, students, retirees, lawyers and magistrates are challenging his economic vision.
Macron appeared on national television TF1 Thursday to respond to the public’s concerns and defend his economic policies and tax changes, which he says are aimed at modernizing the country.
The interview, in a schoolroom in a small village in western France, came hours ahead of a new round of train worker strikes.
Speaking with children’s drawings in the background, Macron said public anger “doesn’t stop” him and vowed to continue with the train reforms, meant to prepare France’s national SNCF railway to open up to competition.
“We will continue because the world around us is speeding up, going through great changes, and because our country must be able to choose its destiny and live better,” he said.
In what some portray as a fight for the identity of France, Macron wants to reduce the role of the state and inject vitality in the economy by trimming guarantees for workers and increasing competition among companies, among other things.
His critics say he is favouring the rich and eroding workers’ hardwon labour rights with moves that risk increasing wealth disparity in a country whose national motto includes the word “equality.”
Macron justified a tax rise for retirees, saying it’s needed to be able to finance the pensions. He also insisted tax cuts for employees and businesses would boost investment and create more jobs.
Last year, despite labour protests, the government used a special, accelerated procedure to push a labour bill through parliament that many feel weakened France’s worker protections.
This spring, Macron’s government initiated changes to tax retirees more and employees less, cut jobs in some hospitals, reorganize the justice system and apply a new university admissions system — all prompting protests.
But Macron’s biggest challenge as president so far is from French train unions resisting his attempts to eliminate rules that effectively give workers jobs for life.
It has prompted nationwide strikes that have massively disrupted train traffic, and unions plan periodic rolling strikes through June. Legislators begin debating the train labour bill this week.
Polls show the majority of the French approve the changes to rail service, but a growing minority supports the strikes.
This week, protesting students are occupying and partially blocking several public universities. They fear that a bill to reorganize university admissions will threaten the current system, under which all high school graduates have free access to public universities.
The Elysée Palace so far considers the protest movement as relatively limited compared with the 1.6 million students enrolled in French universities.
But Macron is worried enough that he has scheduled two long television interviews to explain his position. After his appearance Thursday, he will spend two hours answering questions Sunday from BFM television and online investigative site Mediapart.