The day after the adoption of the immigration law, Emmanuel Macron was the guest this Wednesday evening on the show “C à vous” on France. On the sidelines of the text, which caused a stir in the majority, the president spoke on other subjects including the bill on the end of life, the Hamas-Israel war and the Paris 2024 Olympics. 20 minutes make the point.
At the end of life
It is a text that is awaited by both the French and health professionals. This week, the president was directly and publicly challenged on this subject by singer Françoise Hardy, who suffers from incurable laryngeal cancer and is campaigning for the right to euthanasia. Emmanuel Macron affirmed that he was willing to “take the time” before presenting a bill on the end of life, now expected in February, after the presentation of a ten-year plan on palliative care. On this law, as expected as it is sensitive, the executive has pushed back the deadline several times, to the great dismay of supporters of a change in legislation.
After the citizens’ convention on the end of life, the majority in favor of active assistance in dying, Emmanuel Macron asked his ministers for a bill “before the end of summer” 2023. It will finally be presented in February 2024. ” The first thing we must do is complete the French model of palliative care, by continuing to invest, by correcting the inequalities that exist in our territories,” the president said on Wednesday. “We must better support pain, especially children.”
This first pillar will be deployed “in January” by Minister Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, who took the “interim” helm of the Ministry of Health on Wednesday after the resignation of Aurélien Rousseau. “In February, I will present the outlines of the text” on the end of life, continued Emmanuel Macron, specifying a few red lines.
“We will not pass a law that affects children,” he said. “We will not pass a law that deals with psychiatric cases, mentally retarded people or people who want to commit suicide for mental health problems,” he added. “This law will treat our compatriots in adulthood who have their discernment and who have incurable illnesses with suffering that is called refractory to treatment,” he further detailed. He cited the example of “someone who today has a hopeless degenerative disease, Charcot’s disease, someone who has cancer which we know is incurable.” “We must give him the possibility, in conditions of deliberation with his family, in medically supervised conditions, to have a dignified end of life and to have a response which is more adapted, more human than the one we have today,” declared Emmanuel Macron.
On the Hamas-Israel war
The head of state once again warned that fighting terrorism does not mean “razing everything in Gaza”, reiterating his call for a truce “leading to a ceasefire for humanitarian reasons”. “As the weeks go by, we cannot let the idea take hold that fighting effectively against terrorism would mean razing everything in Gaza or indiscriminately attacking civilian populations and causing civilian victims,” said the leader. of the State on the France 5 channel. “This is why, while recognizing Israel’s right to protect itself while fighting against terrorism, we demand the protection of these people and a truce leading to a ceasefire -fire for humanitarian reasons,” he added.
The French president asked the Israelis to “stop this response because it is not appropriate, because all lives are equal and we defend them”. He defended France’s “coherent” and “fair” response, while recognizing that it “does not please either side.” “I believe it corresponds to our diplomatic history”, as well as “our values (and) our interests”.
On the Paris 2024 Olympics
The President of the Republic assured that there were obviously “plan Bs” for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, “in the event of a potential threat”.
“There are obviously plans B, plans C, etc. “, for the organization of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, assured the Head of State on France5, while the president of the Les Républicains party Eric Ciotti had recently suggested giving up organizing it on the Seine, because security may not be ensured there. This plan B would intervene “in the event of a potential threat”, “if you have a rise in international or regional tensions, if you have a series of attacks” as in November 2015, he explained.
On the Gérard Depardieu affair
President Emmanuel Macron affirmed that the Legion of Honor is an Order which is “not there to preach morality”, while denouncing “a manhunt” against the actor Gérard Depardieu, following the broadcast of a shocking TV documentary on the French cinema star.
“One thing you’ll never see me in is manhunts. I hate that,” replied the Head of State, after the announcement by the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak that a “disciplinary procedure” would be initiated by the Grand Chancellery of the Legion of Honor against of the actor, targeted by two complaints for rape and sexual assault.
On the celebration of Hanouka at the Elysée
The president also defended his presence at the beginning of the month during a celebration of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah at the Elysée, explaining that he was not going to “push the chief rabbi of France to the ground when the latter lit the first candle of the candelabra. On December 7, the president received an award rewarding his fight against anti-Semitism. On this occasion, the Chief Rabbi of France, Haïm Korsia, lit the first Hanouka candle in the Elysée reception hall. He gave his account of this episode which had caused controversy.
“I lit the candle of remembrance, the little red candle, which has no religious character, none at all,” he justified himself. Haïm Korsia then grabbed this candle of remembrance of Auschwitz to light “the first candles of a celebration which is a religious celebration,” said Emmanuel Macron, denying himself having “participated” in a “religious meeting”.
“Did I have to jump on the chief rabbi, tackle him to the ground and say ‘no’? », pretended to wonder Emmanuel Macron. “There are people for whom it’s just lighting candles, there are people for whom it’s religious, he did it here, he didn’t overplay it,” he continued during this live broadcast from the presidential palace. “I think that this is not an infraction of the rules of secularism,” clarified the head of state, adding that “everyone needs transcendence and spirituality.”