After a difficult start to his five-year term, Emmanuel Macron will try to regain control by reviving a tradition. During his July 14 interview, the president will also outline the prospects for his second and final term.
From the end of the military parade and for about thirty minutes, starting at 1:10 p.m., he intends to “set the course, the main lines of the policies that must be conducted” by answering questions from Caroline Roux and Anne-Claire Coudray on TF1 and France 2. It is only the second time, after 2020, that the Head of State will lend himself to this exercise on National Day.
A first since his re-election
It is also and above all his first television interview since his re-election in April and the legislative elections. But after this long electoral period, “we have fully entered the time of action”, assures his entourage. “There are many challenges facing us, geostrategic with the war at the gates of Europe and its very direct consequences on the French, the closure of the Russian gas pipeline Nordstream which will not be without consequences, inflation, the ecological challenge , energy supply”, lists an adviser to the president. The Head of State also underlined Wednesday evening before the armies that France had entered a “war economy”. He intends to return to this question during the interview.
He will also try to erase the feeling of uncertainty left by this start of the second five-year term, with the late appointment of the government of Elisabeth Borne, the choice not to really campaign in the legislative elections and in the end the loss of the absolute majority. . “The French expect a strong voice on the future of the country and on the way in which it intends to lead the nation”, analyzes the director of political studies of Viavoice, Stewart Chau. They no longer manage, according to him, to see a presidential project “clear, readable and above all a form of” desirability “” as when he arrived at the Elysée in 2017.
After a marked improvement in his image at the start of the war in Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron is again perceived as a more authoritarian (73%) and arrogant (70%) personality, underlines an Elabe study for BFMTV published on Wednesday. Its ability to reform the country (41%) and bring together the French (24%) is also declining in terms of image.
Work and pensions also on the menu
In this context, the Head of State will have to “reassure”, “print the idea that he is there, that he has a very clear idea of what will happen at the start of the school year”, continues Stewart Chau. He must regain “time control” in the face of very noisy opposition, which has already challenged the government’s plan for a health pass at the borders, we insist in the majority.
The Head of State should also discuss this Thursday work, unemployment, pensions and the RSA. On the labor market in particular, which is very “in tension” with great difficulty in recruiting in certain sectors, according to a government official, it is necessary “to put the church back a little at the village level”.