Currently, at a point when Donald Trump’s approaches force Europeans to review their sovereignty, Paris is not in the best condition to come to this turning point, as its debt and political divisions prevent it from coming to this turning point.
As the French are baffled and shocked by Donald Trump‘s perspective, which is growing the split between the US and Europe steadily each day, the French have come to realize that they are entering a new period, which Emmanuel Macron had talked about on March 5.
With a change of era comes a change of mindset. Everything needs to be reevaluated in light of the need to strengthen and consolidate European sovereignty. A huge gap exists, and tens of billions of euros will have to be invested not only in defense but also in innovation, research, and industrialization, at the cost of painful choices and a complete reorientation.
As France approaches this turning point, it is not in the best of shape. A major obstacle to its progress is its debt, which is one of the highest in the eurozone, its high public deficits, the politically divided class, and its lack of momentum. After the collapse of the Barnier government, Prime Minister François Bayrou only managed marginally to pass state and social security budgets, both of which remain in deficit. The most significant things remain to be done.
From a fundamental standpoint, the convergence between the president and the prime minister can hardly be questioned. Their purpose is to put the government in a position to deliver more in order to decrease its reliance on the outside world and ensure that its social standard remains sufferable, though it is no longer proportional.
A knot remains untangled, however: The retirement age, set at 64, is both a symbol of the work ethic Macron has championed since 2022 and the priority of fierce social protests. Unions and left-wing parties have proposed the withdrawal of the 2023 pension reform as critical to restoring democracy to the country, without which it cannot move forward.
Encouraged by the president to work on the outcomes of the new global circumstances without hesitation and fiercely criticized by a former president, Edouard Philippe, who has slammed him for being out of touch with the present moment, Bayrou has relentlessly upheld his political procedure. He seeks to re-involve workers’ unions and employers’ associations, all while doing an intensive job of educating the French people in an endeavor to get them to share the responsibility.
Three key arguments support his position: Political mistrust has reached unprecedented levels, the divide between society’s top and bottom tiers has expanded in the last seven years, and the far right poses a significant danger. Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, has been biding her time, ready to seize any social misstep to reassert her influence amid the shifting international landscape.
Bayrou is gradually narrowing the range of possibilities. On Sunday, March 16, talking on the radio station France Inter, he said he would not return the retirement age to 62, as well as the tax hikes mandated by the left, at the risk of alienating some of his more moderate supporters. This is the limitation of the gentle method he supports: Instead of building consensus, it can, on the opposite, waste his influence and open the door to objection from those who have blamed him for wanting to buy time.
