After the “Saint-Denis meetings”, Emmanuel Macron must transform the test

Emmanuel Macron can congratulate himself on the success of the meeting he has organized on Wednesday August 30 in Saint-Denis . All the leaders of the parties represented in Parliament came. But what follows is no less perilous for him: he must transform the essay and show that this format, unpublished under the V^e Republic, will make it possible to advance files.

This Wednesday afternoon, he was to send a letter to all the participants summarizing the twelve hours of discussions. According to government spokesman Olivier Véran, he is awaiting their comments and proposals to continue discussions. On the left as on the right, the party leaders had come with precise shopping lists, often the opposite of the priorities displayed by the executive for his return.

Left, right and extreme right want a referendum

In addition to one pension reform referendum entered into force on 1^er September, the left calls for strong measures for purchasing power, more than ever at the heart of the concerns of the French in this return to school. She was given an end of inadmissibility.

In unison, the right and the extreme right are asking for a consultation of the French on immigration, while the project of law is about to return to Parliament . “I understand that, for the moment, the president has stuck to the exercise in which he excels: talking about everything but not committing to anything”, tackled in “Le Figaro” Bruno Retailleau , the boss of senators LR.

After the semi-failure of the National Council for Refoundation (CNR), whose national ambitions are now reduced, Emmanuel Macron is counting on the “Saint-Denis meetings” – the baptismal name given to last week’s meeting – to find breath. He is “extremely motivated”, even declared Olivier Véran, the government spokesperson.

Emmanuel Macron wants to respond to the democratic crisis with, in particular, decentralization and deconcentration. This Wednesday, on the occasion of the return of the Council of State, Elisabeth Borne spoke of the “crisis of confidence” that politics as a whole is going through and, more broadly, everything that resembles a form of authority. She wants a political decision “as close as possible to the field” to respond to the French who believe that “words and actions no longer coincide”.

communication exercise

But the Head of State also comes up against a wall of skepticism on the part of opposition parties who do not intend to participate in a communication exercise and who are already in the starting blocks for the parliamentary debates at the start of the school year (law of public finance programming, 2024 budget, immigration law) and the preparation for the European elections of June 2024. They say they expect results, as party leaders repeat over and over.

“We are always available to make proposals. But if it’s to talk for hours and hours and nothing comes of it, I don’t see the point of going back, “Launched last Sunday on RTL Manuel Bompard, the coordinator of La France rebellious. He is more than reluctant to participate in a new meeting with the Head of State. In the meantime, the social conference announced in Saint-Denis last week – the only positive point of the meeting according to the left – should take place “during October”, according to Olivier Véran.