Member-only story
Revolution Permanente
Everything old is new again as French dissenters protest Macron’s government en masse.
“Many of the things that we have to do today, in a time of crisis — and that we will have to do in the coming months and years — will structure the life of our country in the long run,” said French President Emmanuel Macron on the reelection campaign trail in 2022.
“We are at a tipping point where we can make a real difference,” Macron told his supporters, promising to, “make France a more self-sufficient nation,” if reelected.
“We will continue with reforms to the labour market, continuing to simplify social dialogue, continuing to give visibility to employers and employees,” Macron vowed. “We will continue with reforms to unemployment insurance to adapt it to the economic situation.”
“The reform I want to carry out is to increase the legal retirement age gradually,” Macron explained in 2022. “To bring the legal age up to 65 years.”
Elections, as they say in the United States, have consequences.
One of those consequences is that the ruling political party gets to rule. For better or for worse, the ideas and policy platforms espoused by these elected officials are occasionally — and even sometimes accidentally — enacted in the public sphere.