Emmanuel Macron’s reforms are increasingly being revised or reversed, while his political camp has done little to defend them publicly, according to a column by Françoise Fressoz in Le Monde. The article identifies the failure to build a durable new political force as a major mistake: Macron’s project, it argues, was treated as if only he could carry it forward.
The changes cited include the planned replacement of Parcoursup by 2028 and further adjustments to the baccalaureate reform introduced in 2019 by then education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer. The column also points to the suspension of pension reform in 2026 and a partial retreat from supply-side policy, including a surcharge on the profits of large companies introduced in 2025.
Fressoz describes growing isolation for Macron and people who were involved in his early political campaigns. She contrasts that situation with the hopes raised in 2017, when Macron’s programme presented a coherent vision: giving citizens more control over their futures by challenging entrenched interests, making the labour market more flexible, expanding apprenticeships and continuing education, and allowing people to choose when to retire.
The article says the economic policy underpinning that agenda was intended to encourage growth and risk-taking within a framework of European free competition. But a succession of crises weakened the original ambition. The pension reform became a particularly clear example: the promise of choosing when to retire gave way to a requirement to work longer as the government confronted the limits imposed by the need to address deficits.
Sources: Le Monde Politique.