In Aix-en-Provence the government defends its reforms and its "tenacity"

In Aix-en-Provence the government defends its reforms and its "tenacity"

The Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, leaves the Elysee Palace in Paris on June 6, 2018 / & copy AFP / ludovic MARIN

The government, half-masted in the polls and criticized for its lack of social "justice", defended on Saturday its reforms and its "tenacity", two days before the speech of Emmanuel Macron before the Congress at Versailles.

Pbading the Aix-en-Provence economic meeting, now a traditional event that brings together political decision makers, intellectuals and business leaders, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and his Minister of Labor Muriel Penicaud have justified their action in turn.

A way to pave the way for the head of state, who summoned parliamentarians to Congress for the second time in his term, in order to chart his economic and social course.

"In this world that is marked in its beginning by anger, which pays in fine, which ensures and the glory and the success, it is the tenacity ", launched M. Philippe.

" The world which is coming is a dangerous world not just about the questioning of multilateralism and economic wars, "he said. "It is also a dangerous world, and in a dangerous world, it is better to be stable on its supports and prepared."

In this context, the head of the government considered it necessary to "look at lucidly the situation of the country as it is ", described as" not pleasing ".

France" is a country in which for a very long time there has been a form of renunciation to make decisions sometimes difficult to badume, sometimes difficult to explain, "continued the Prime Minister, claiming to want to make France the country" the most competitive and most attractive "in Europe.

Believing have carried two draft laws" structuring for the future "- on the right to work and skills – Mrs. Pénicaud badured that the government's reform agenda was" not over. "

" There are already two major reforms that basically set the stage for French-style flexicurity, "he said. she explained to journalists, saying that this was "a motor of competitiveness and fight against unemployment."

But if "in 15 months we have already done a lot (…), we still have more to do , "she added.

-" To get out of accounting logics "-

The meeting between Mr. Macron and the union and employer leaders, scheduled for July 17, should allow to have "at the start" of a "consistent social agenda and quality", according to the minister who did not specify what topics the executive plan to include in this new agenda.

These statements come as many members The majority of the presidential majority have expressed in recent days their dissatisfaction with government policy, considered too unbalanced.

MP LREM Frédéric Barbier has estimated in Le Monde Saturday that for a year, " 'balance' had not been found yet , despite "some social progress".

"The question is not to amputate social minima or unemployment benefits, but to guarantee the necessary national solidarity", he insisted, calling the executive to "go out of accounting and budgetary logics."

In a note handed in early June at the Elysee Palace, three economists close to Emmanuel Macron, Philip Aghion, Philippe Martin and Jean Pisani-Ferry, had also sounded the bell alarm, calling the executive to a social rebalancing.

Warnings that resonate in public opinion surveys: according to an Odoxa poll for Le Figaro and franceinfo published Thursday, barely a third of French believe the policy of the executive "fair" (29%) or "effective" (34%). Another Elabe poll, also published on Thursday, shows that Macron and Philippe show a sharp drop in their popularity in June, by six points in one month

(© AFP / 07 July 2018 20h22)