“Wake up”, “we are not there!”, annoys Macron

The head of state promised to “redouble his efforts on major reforms” and to “redouble his courage and energy in matters of work and employment”. SARAH MEYSSONNIER / AFP
The President of the Republic jeered during a meeting at the Élysée at the oppositions who want a “pause” in reforms on the labor market.
This is called banging your fist on the table. Emmanuel Macron warned on Tuesday that the objective of full employment, which he set for his second five-year term, “it’s not won yet», launching to those who would like a “break» in the reforms: “wake up“, “we are not there“. The unemployment rate recorded a slight increase in the third quarter, to 7.4% of the active population in France (excluding Mayotte), compared to 7.2% in the second quarter, marking at best a pause in the decline, at worst a inversion of the curve in the wrong direction.
The Head of State, presenting at the Élysée a new program to support the rise of certain small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), praised his record of reforms and his supply-side policy. In an allusion to his controversial metaphor of “first in line” and the economic theory of trickle-down, he lamented having been “sometimes caricatured“. “I very sincerely believe that when we help volunteers to succeed, in any case to facilitate the climb, they pull many others behind them.“, pleaded the president, displaying his “passion” always “intact» to support entrepreneurship.
“We are on a plateau”
According to him, these reforms are what “which allowed us to go from just over 9% unemployment in 2017 to 7% this year“. “We see that we are on a plateau. It’s not won yet, we’re not at full employment“, he added, while welcoming this drop which occurred even though “many of our neighbors who were in a much better situation were stagnating or even had a situation that was deteriorating“.
“In many of your sectors, we still have a lot of unfilled jobs while we are at 7% unemployment. So which means we haven’t arrived“, he insisted, at a time when some in the presidential camp are pleading for new potentially unpopular reforms to achieve full employment. “I see with concern” THE “ambient speech» who would plead for “roll back reforms to pause», added Emmanuel Macron.
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“Wake up! I tell you in all sincerity, wake up! We are at 7% unemployment rate“, “we are not there“, he insisted. The head of state promised to “redouble efforts on major reforms” and of “redouble your courage and energy in matters of work and employment“, “because it takes courage to make reforms“.
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