On Monday April 17, 2023, during his speech following the disputed adoption of the pension reform, Emmanuel Macron announced a plan of “100 days of appeasement” and “action”. While many were waiting for the announcement of a withdrawal of the law, the president announced a “roadmap” for the implementation of “three major priority projects”.
The course set by the president is therefore clear: new projects to turn the page on pension reform. On Wednesday April 26, 2023, Élisabeth Borne detailed the program for this agenda. But why give yourself 100 days to tackle so many legislative projects? Why give National Day as a deadline?
The choice of 100 days recalls strong moments in history: whether it is Napoleon Bonaparte’s reconquest of power in 1815 or the period when American President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to reform the United States in 1930 , recalls Ouest-France.
According to Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, professor of political communication at Sciences Po Paris, these 100 days are a well-calculated strategy on the part of Emmanuel Macron. Questioned by Ouest-France, he considers that the president seeks to “stage his return to the field […] He seeks above all to find a majority in Parliament, and to find a form of authority.” How does he plan to achieve this?
According to Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, Emmanuel Macron wants to regain control of the media agenda after the pension reform crisis. “It’s a communication campaign. By setting a term, he controls the political-media agenda, sets a beginning and an end, and between the two, he says: now you’re going to listen to me,” he explains. he in West-France.
The expression “100 days” would also allow him not to give a precise color to this relaunch at the start of the five-year term. “Emmanuel Macron called it 100 days, for lack of being able to strongly thematize this sequence with a rather jumbled character”, analyzes Raphaël Haddad, doctor in discourse analysis and founder of the Mots-Clés agency. Elisabeth Borne herself underlined the intense nature of this new agenda during her statement on Wednesday April 26, 2023. “Our roadmap is particularly dense.”
However, the multiplicity of projects and the deadline of July 14 for a “first assessment”, casts doubt on the achievement of all these ambitions on time. Is the 100 days a countdown to a cabinet reshuffle?
“This 100-day period is also a way of putting pressure on its Prime Minister, of making the hourglass run,” analyzes Raphaël Haddad, founder of the Mots-Clés agency in Ouest-France. And the pressure is great. “Full employment”, “ecological transition”, “overhaul of public services”, “republican order”… The list of new projects is long and constrained by time.
However, Elisabeth Borne projects well beyond July 14. In her statement on Wednesday April 26, 2023, she announced that she was proposing a “text in the fall” on immigration, since “this is not the time to launch a debate on a subject that could divide the country”. At Matignon, Elisabeth Borne’s cabinet supports her: “The 100 days is not a totem period.”
A reshuffle, however, does not seem unlikely. Many differences have erupted between the Head of State and the Prime Minister in recent weeks: different ways of communicating, opposing positions…
On March 22, 2023, a few days after the adoption of the pension reform, Emmanuel Macron spoke on TF1 and France 2. Asked whether or not he had “sustainable” confidence in his Prime Minister, the President replied “She has my trust to lead this government team. And what I’ve asked her to do is build a government program.” For the rest, the appointment is made in 100 days.
