Less than six months before France’s 2027 presidential election, candidates, government members and commentators are all struck by how the crises of the end of Emmanuel Macron’s decade are suffocating the presidential debate. The social unease that erupted in early autumn, driven by a high-school student movement without precedent in 20 years, has further marginalized an electoral contest already considered exceptional because the far right and the radical left have moved ahead of governing parties. The Rassemblement national and La France insoumise are buoyed by the polarization at work, while the government’s inability to answer the anger has placed it in the position of scapegoat.
The gravity of the moment mechanically places Macron and his ministers at the forefront of responsibility, in a sharply degraded political and economic climate in which the record of Macron’s tenure is widely condemned. On Thursday, November 5, the executive will face another day of mobilization, this time called by the inter-union group and focused on the cost of living and wage increases. Part of the youth is expected to join the marches as student and high-school unions call for blockades to continue.
The executive’s plan to meet high-school students’ demands—on orientation, replacement of absent teachers, student precariousness, timetables and school buildings—has not produced a way out of the crisis. On Sunday, November 1, the president’s entourage nonetheless welcomed what it described as a “return to republican order,” calling it “imperfect” but incomparable to the incidents of October 17.
Sources: Le Monde Politique.