Emmanuel Macron received, Wednesday, August 30 in Saint-Denis, the party leaders as part of his “major political initiative”. But the president has not committed to reforms or weighty measures.
Party leaders gathered around Emmanuel Macron, this Wednesday, August 30, on the occasion of the president’s project for a “major political initiative”. At the Legion of Honor school in Saint-Denis, politicians, leaders of all the “political forces represented in Parliament”, worked on the emergence of measures that could achieve consensus.
On the program of the discussions that were held: “the international situation”, “the cohesion of the Nation”, “the effectiveness” of “our public action”, “the place of the school” and questions around the “power purchase and inequality” and “integration”. Through this “major political initiative”, the Head of State hinted that he could be open to a referendum at the end of these round tables, “and why not even a preferendum (…) which is a concept that would allow us to test several subjects at the same time during the same referendum”, said Olivier Véran.
This Thursday, August 31, Olivier Véran, the spokesperson for the government, indicated that there should be no mistake about this initiative: for the executive, it was “consultations”, not “programming of future reforms “. “The president indicated what he wanted to wear, he listened to the representatives of the opposition, there will be a return, new exchanges,” he said on Thursday on France Info. Olivier Véran also described these meetings as “historic”: “People who don’t talk to each other, who don’t get along, who don’t understand each other, who don’t think the same thing, have decided to talk to each other behind closed doors. closed, decided to exchange, decided to share disagreements and disagreements, until the middle of the night,” he said.
It should be noted that these “Saint-Denis meetings”, the name given to this meeting between Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of the political parties present in Parliament, were held with the utmost discretion. Neither policy advisers nor cell phones were allowed into the meeting room. As for the press, it could not go further than in front of the steps of the education house of the Legion of Honor.
It was therefore when the party leaders came out of the meeting rooms that the first conclusions were presented by the main interested parties. Here are the first reactions:
The government spokesperson, for his part, announced after the Council of Ministers that a government seminar would be held on September 6, 2023 to follow up on the political initiative and the proposals resulting from the August 30 meeting. as well as “to address the issues substantively but also from a methodological point of view”.
Emmanuel Macron validated a proposal coming from the left: the creation of a “social conference”, relating “to careers and branches located below the minimum wage”, the information was confirmed to AFP by the entourage of the head of state. This is the only concrete avenue of work, resulting from the discussions, at this stage.
Opposition leaders had no shortage of proposals to make to the executive, but aware of the divisions and given the difficult exchanges between them and the majority, many called for referenda. The right and the extreme right, represented respectively by Eric Ciotti and Jordan Bardella, had migration policy in their sights, and wanted it to be put to a referendum.
On the left, the Nupes calls for the consultation of the French on a completely different subject: a referendum on the pension reform, only a few months after its adoption and while the bill is due to take effect on Friday, September 1, 2023. LFI, the PS , EELV and the PCF believe that this is “the only referendum project that French women and men are waiting for”. The opposition of the citizens to this reform had manifested itself in the streets for several months before the forced adoption of the text by the 49.3.
