France’s support for Ukraine but also more national subjects such as the social discontent that is shaking the country or the purchasing power of the French or its decline in popularity. The Head of State has made many economic announcements in recent days, particularly in the field of reindustrialization. He also spoke on Sunday for the continuation of the tax cut on the middle classes. Emmanuel Macron answered questions from Gilles Bouleau on Monday evening on TF1. Here are the key takeaways from the president.
A door “open to train pilots” of Ukrainian fighters
“France’s strategy is simple: help Ukraine resist,” said Emmanuel Macron, who announced that France has “opened the door to train” Ukrainian fighter pilots “right now”. Asked about arms deliveries to Kiev, “we decided to deliver new ammunition and above all to build elements to train their troops, their battalions, and to repair the vehicles, the guns”, he specified, refusing to detail the promises made the day before, Sunday, when the head of state received his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. “We are going to deliver other equipment, other ammunition, other missiles,” added the President of the Republic.
A word about patterns
After having received 200 big bosses of foreign multinationals on Monday, Emmanuel Macron is pleased that “for the fourth consecutive year, France is the most attractive country in Europe. “Yes there is violence, it is intolerable,” said Emmanuel Macron to the bosses, including Elon Musk, who saw the images of the demonstrations against the pension reform. But “the country is moving forward and continues to create,” said the president interviewed by TF1.
Two billion euros in tax cuts on “the middle classes” by 2027
Emmanuel Macron assured that he wanted to “focus” two billion tax cuts on “the middle classes” by 2027, “when the budgetary trajectory allows it in this five-year period”. “In our budgetary trajectory, there are two billion tax cuts for households. These two billion, I asked the government to make me proposals so that they focus on these middle classes, ”he said.
The Head of State did not specify the measures envisaged. “I’ve asked the government to work on it, but I don’t want to close doors here because there may be smart things to do on some of the charges you pay, the contributions you pay when you’re employee. So this is what will allow people who work, who are middle class, to have in a way a greater amount of living for them, ”he underlined.
The government is preparing a text on the sharing of value for employees
Can’t companies be asked to raise wages? “We did everything to encourage things,” replied Emmanuel Macron who “encourages companies to have a social dialogue” in this direction. In addition, “we are going to submit a text on the sharing of value”, because an employee “is remunerated in several ways” and in particular “profit-sharing and participation”, and it is therefore “on this that the government will decide,” the president announced.
Macron hopes food inflation will be ‘absorbed by the fall’
The Head of State also declared that he hoped that inflation on food products would be “absorbed (…) by the fall”, aiming for there to be “no exceptional margins made by large retailers or manufacturers in this context. “The objective is that we absorb this inflation by the fall to, I hope, return to better known and more normal lands,” he said.
While inflation on supermarket shelves was again measured at nearly 15% over one year in April, Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to “get everyone back around the table a bit to try to lower certain prices to support our compatriots”.
“The country is moving forward” despite the dispute over pensions
“The country is moving forward” despite the challenge to the pension reform, assured Emmanuel Macron. “There was opposition in the street but it was calm and there was violence (…) and people who don’t want solutions. But that’s not France, it doesn’t say everything about the country and the country is moving forward and the country continues to create, ”said the Head of State. Emmanuel Macron repeated the word “advance” several times during the interview. And about the pension reform, he criticized elected officials for having “run out”, targeting certain Republican deputies without naming them.
The president “rejects” the adjective of “contemptuous”
Some opponents of Emmanuel Macron’s policy call him “contemptuous”. An adjective that he “does not like” and “that we put in all the sauces. “I challenge him,” he replies again. True contempt is lying to people. If I was contemptuous, I wouldn’t try to talk to the French, I would think of my apple. I am sometimes hard on evil, yes, contemptuous, I reject it. »