Why criticism of “corporatisms” remains leitmotif of Emmanuel Macron

During the debate and mobilization against pension reform, the Head of State displays his annoyance in the face of French gravies, regulated professions at the high administration.

by Ivanne Trippenbach

While Emmanuel Macron descends the steps of the Elysée, he launched the interlocutor that he meets: “I fold the Gaul!” In July 2014, the young assistant secretary general of the Elysée under François Hollande , eager for movement, leaves, before returning as Minister of the Economy denouncing a French “disease”, “corporatism”. Almost a decade later, nothing weighs more to the President of the Republic than impediment. “We do not change beings”, whispers a history of the palace. Shared between the determination to reform and the concern not to ignite the country, Emmanuel Macron plays the same leitmotif, buried under the screed of a second annoyed five -year term.

On December 10, 2022, the Head of State still designates corporatism, in an interview with the Sunday Journal, such as “French disease, the thing that was rebuilt most quickly after the Revolution of 1789”. “This is my main political fight”, summarizes the head of state, a slayer of “the capture of the general interest by people for the benefit of their particular interests”. In his wishes for 2023, the President of the Republic has an end to the “ambition to continue to transform our country in the face of corporatisms”. And judge that it is still too little, too slow.

In recent times, his interlocutors have perceived impatience signals. It is this remark, in a meeting with the regal ministers, on January 24, on such a committee: “Experts are still experts from the ancient world.” It is this humor trait disqualifying a state clerk deemed conformist, whose names outcrops in a cabinet meeting: “If we need nothing, we are going to ask him.” Always, the criticism of the corporatists aims for a jumble of the high administration, unions, regulated professions …

“Fluidifying the company”

Educated the mood of the palace, Olivier Dussopt raised the word dear to Emmanuel Macron by opening the debate on pensions, in the National Assembly. “We were elected to rid the French of corporatisms, streamline society, dry up the annuities,” he discounted on Monday, February 6. “There is a great conservatism of the social partners,” supported the Minister of Labor to the world, the next day.

From Brussels, on the night of Thursday to Friday, Emmanuel Macron called for “the spirit of responsibility” of the unions so that their movement, on the eve of a fourth day of mobilization against the reform, does not block Not “the life of the rest of the country” and that “work can continue in parliament”. The deputies had to debate the end of special regimes on Friday, February 10, which the Elysée describes as “a brick which will one day allow you to facilitate a universal reform”, while the current reform, all unpopular that it is , do not overthrow the table.

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/Media reports cited above.