Since Wednesday May 4, the Elysée has been broadcasting a series of videos on YouTube retracing some of the key events of Emmanuel Macron’s previous five-year term. The Head of State appears there launched at full speed in his desire to « transformer » French society. “I have the campaign in my paws. There is no transition,” he breathes, with a smile, to Jean-Claude Mailly, then secretary general of Force Ouvrière, proud to carry out reforms “in record time”. A striking contrast to the first days of his new mandate, which is currently showing itself to be motionless, a little less than two weeks after his victory against Marine Le Pen.
The government of Jean Castex, in fact, is still in place, despite the promises of “new impetus” formulated during the campaign by the candidate president. This team will not be reshuffled, its spokesperson, Gabriel Attal, announced on Wednesday before May 13, the date on which Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term will officially end.
However, the members of the government thought to attend their last council of ministers, on April 28, at the end of which a buffet was exceptionally organized. Since then, time stretches like a soft watch. The Minister Delegate for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, even staged himself ironically on Wednesday in a video posted on TikTok, in the middle of his moving boxes, entitled “When it’s been ten days that you’ve been waiting for a new government.
“Continuity of the State”
In the meantime, the project presented by Emmanuel Macron is waiting to be unpacked, as if the election had not taken place. The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, nevertheless alerted to the “considerable economic difficulties” which are now affecting France, in the grip of sluggish growth and “a new inflation”, especially on basic necessities. “The hardest part is ahead of us”, warned, Thursday, the boss of Bercy.
No date is known for the launch of the food voucher, which the Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie, promised the implementation “immediately after the election”. In the same way, the calendar is not fixed for the text in favor of the purchasing power that Emmanuel Macron had projected before the ballot. Arguing from the “continuity of the state”, Gabriel Attal assured on Wednesday that “this government is responsible for anticipating and preparing work on the commitments made by the President of the Republic”. But the ministerial changes to come, which could be accompanied by redistricting of administrations, relativize the scope of this work.
You have 59.29% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.