Is there always someone at the helm of the ship? The question arises more and more within the presidential majority, while the executive faces an unprecedented challenge since the movement of yellow vests in 2018. Opposition to the pension reform continues to be heard in the street, even more after the use of 49.3 by Elisabeth Borne to get the bill passed.
If Emmanuel Macron has reached out to the unions, there is no question of talking about pensions again and the head of state now wants to move on. Very discreet on the subject, the president only spoke on the subject last week, the time of an interview with the 1 p.m. television news of TF1 and France 2. Bad news, the presidential word did not print as much as he wanted.
A month before this televised address, the Head of State gave an interview to the magazine Pif, which has just been published this Wednesday, March 29, on the occasion of the magazine’s 75th anniversary. On February 20, Emmanuel Macron met young readers of the magazine and provided answers to their questions that have another resonance today, as the crisis seems to be bogged down around pension reform. Historically linked to the Communist Party, the magazine Pif was relaunched in 2020 by Frédéric Lefebvre, former minister of Nicolas Sarkozy.
Asked about the possibility of resigning during his term, the president explained what could happen at that time.
Consulted by Agence France-Presse, this interview in the magazine is reported by the Huffington Post. To the question: “Can you leave your post in full term, and what would happen if you left him?”, Emmanuel Macron answers: “If you leave him, it means that there could be a huge crisis and that you are prevented. At that moment, you hand over your mandate to the French and the people vote again”.
If many options are on the table, including a reshuffle, a referendum or a dissolution of the National Assembly, a resignation of the president is highly unlikely. He also spoke about his relationship with the French…
Since his arrival at the Elysée in 2017, Emmanuel Macron has been repeatedly accused of contempt for the French. Questioned by the young readers of Pif, he explained that what he preferred in his “job” was “the exchange, the meeting, trying to understand what works and does not work in the major choices that I implement. “. If “you were able to provide solutions”, it is “satisfying”, adds the president, but sometimes “this is not the case and it is the moments which also affect you, which are frustrating because you see that the things are not moving fast enough.
Regarding his relationship with the French, he spoke of “anger”, “joy”, but assured that “there is no indifference”.