Opposition parties and unions lament the “emptiness” of Emmanuel Macron’s speech

Opposition figures and unions unanimously criticized a “blank” statement after Emmanuel Macron’s televised speech aired on Monday evening, two days after the pension reform law was published.

Questioned by BFMTV, Laurent Berger, general secretary of the French Democratic Workers’ Federation (CFDT), denounced “a kind of vacuum” in the head of state’s words, saying “nothing is concrete”.

“A 13-minute intervention was not enough to quell the anger of the workers,” accused Emmanuel Macron of “closing the Elysée triple-turn door for 3 months.”

General Secretary of the General Confederation of Workers (CGT) Sophie Binet assessed that the president was “locking himself into the crisis by acting like we can move on to something else”.

“What planet does Emmanuel Macron live on? This speech could have been done by Chat GPT”, he began at the antenna of LCI at the end of the presidential speech.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of France’s Insoumise (LFI), described the content of the president’s intervention as “absurd”, saying it was “absolutely untrue” and “considered the theft of two years of freedom”.

“Well. Nothing”, he was content to joke on social networks, and at the end of the speech the member of parliament Sandrin Rousseau also joined the opinion of the unions.

For LFI deputy Adrien Quatennens, Emmanuel Macron’s speech consisted of “a patchwork of empty formulas without a clear direction to forcefully swallow his stubbornness and apply an illogical reform that no one wants”.

Marine Tondelier, head of EELV (Europe ecology the greens), finally launched a simple “all that” and confirmed that those who did not listen to Emmanuel Macron “missed nothing”.

As a reminder, the head of state spoke for the first time after the pension reform came into force and set a new course for the rest of his term.

He strongly supported pension reform, which he considered “necessary”, although he regretted that “unanimity could not be found” on the matter.

According to Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron, Elisabeth Borne will present a road map “next week” based on several axes, including work, republican order, progress and justice.

The first milestone is scheduled in 100 days and is set for July 14.