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In a televised interview broadcast on December 15, the French president said he was still determined to reform France, but did not officially declare himself a candidate for the presidential elections, four months before the vote.
For Emmanuel Macron, the main objective of this long two-hour interview with the television channels TF1 and LCI, called “Where is France going?” and recorded a few days before its broadcast, it was to defend the actions and decisions of his almost five years in power.
The discussion began with the expected topic of Covid-19. The French president considered compulsory vaccination of adults “very possible.” On the other hand, Macron opined on the immunization of children between 5 and 11 years to ensure that it was “desirable” but that it would not be “mandatory.”
But the main announcement of the night was the confirmation of the abandonment of the pension reform during this term because of the coronavirus crisis. However, the president warned that this reform remains “indispensable” and outlined the contours of a future version eliminating the “special regimes”, but in favor of “three major regimes”: one for the public administration, another for the workers of the The private sector and another for the self-employed The rejection of the pension reform had generated between 2019 and 2020 a strong social movement in France.
When asked about the other moments of non-confidence that have marked his mandate, such as the clashes with health workers due to their difficult day to day during the pandemic, Macron acknowledged that he could have made comments that offended some of his compatriots.
“There are words that can hurt and I believe that it is never good and is even unacceptable; respect is part of political life and I have learned it that way,” said the head of state.
Keep ambiguity about your candidacy
Despite multiple questions from the two journalists about his candidacy for the presidential elections in April 2022, Emmanuel Macron neither confirmed nor rejected his future plans.
The current president emphasized his “responsibility” as head of state during this peak of the fifth wave of the pandemic in France to justify that it was not the time to make any kind of candidacy announcement.
“If the question is whether I have ambition for the country beyond next April, of course. But at a time when there is a lot of turmoil and resentment, I have to make difficult decisions to pass the fifth wave.” “You cannot transform a country in five years, so I will continue projecting myself and trying to be serious.”
An interview highly criticized by the opposition
During the interview, Emmanuel Macron attacked, without naming them, some of the already declared suitors in the presidential race, such as Valérie Pécresse and Eric Zemmour. And these candidates, like all the opposition forces, in turn harshly criticized the president’s televised intervention.
Très bonne mémoire d ‘@ eugeniieBastie… j’ai saisi the conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel pour faire, à moins de quatre mois du scrutin presidentiel, respect the pluralism du débat démocratique #TempsDeParole https://t.co/Q9LQKagtAP
– Valérie Pécresse (@vpecresse) December 14, 2021
Along with the substantive criticism of the head of state’s speech, what especially united the different candidates was to denounce an unofficial pre-campaign on their part. Those opposition figures accused Macron of abusing his position to mix up his position as President of the Republic and his reelection campaign.
The main goal of this complaint is to count the time of intervention of the candidates for the presidential elections. Some candidates, such as Valérie Pécresse or Yannick Jadot claimed to have referred the matter to the CSA, the French broadcasting regulator that has the role of referee judge in electoral campaigns.
With AFP, EFE and Reuters
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