By Michel Rose<\/p>\n
PARIS (Reuters) -In a 2018 interview with Fox News ahead of his first state visit to the United States, a fresh-faced President Emmanuel Macron was asked whether he might back down on reforms amid fierce domestic opposition.<\/p>\n
“No. Chance,” Macron replied, separating each word for emphasis.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to 2025: a politically cornered Macron, under siege from a resurgent parliamentary opposition, has been forced to shelve the only major economic reform of his second term – a totemic pension overhaul pushed through at great political cost.<\/p>\n
END OF MACRONISM?<\/p>\n
For months, as France faced its worst political crisis in decades, Macron rejected leftist demands to shelve the reform.<\/p>\n
His painful concession, delaying the reform until after the 2027 presidential election, was made as a last-ditch attempt to prevent the collapse of Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s weak minority government. It underlines the gravity of the problems facing a deeply unpopular president polling at just 14%.<\/p>\n
It also marks the collapse of Macron’s reformist push to modernise France – and perhaps even the end of Macronism itself, nearly two years before he is due to step down.<\/p>\n
“Backing down on the one and only major societal reform since his re-election – if it’s not a final blow, it’s at least a clear sign the president has stopped making his mark,” said analyst Stewart Chau at research agency Verian.<\/p>\n
MOOD IS GRIM IN MACRON’S CAMP<\/p>\n
Supporters say the suspension, which leaves in place a partial increase of the minimum retirement age by nine months that took effect on October 1, was a necessary compromise to restore stability after months of political turmoil.<\/p>\n
In the shorter term, Macron’s concession has bought him time. Lecornu survived two no-confidence votes on Thursday, and the possibility of an early election now appears more remote.<\/p>\n
But the long-term damage is clear. National auditors say the freeze will blow a 13 billion euro ($15.16 billion) annual hole in the public finances by 2035 if it’s not undone after 2027.<\/p>\n
Given the widespread hostility towards the reform, it is unclear whether any potential Macron successor will campaign on restoring the measure, leaving its long-term future in doubt.<\/p>\n
The mood among Macron’s allies was grim after the climb-down.<\/p>\n
“It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we had to swallow it,” said Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, a lawmaker in Macron’s party.<\/p>\n
Some Macronists say they’ll vote against the suspension – knowing it will pass – to avoid looking like they have betrayed their principles.<\/p>\n
“I’m deeply concerned that, in our rush to exit the crisis, we’re sacrificing the only structural reform that truly matters for the future,” lawmaker Olivia Gregoire, a former Macron minister, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Macron built his political brand on being the bold reformer France had long lacked – a leader unafraid to defy street protests and vested interests to modernise a sluggish economy.<\/p>\n
He portrayed himself as the president who would do what others wouldn’t: push through painful but necessary changes that previous governments had dodged, mocking past presidents as “do-nothings” in a 2017 speech.<\/p>\n
His first term delivered on that promise with a blitz of reforms: scrapping the wealth tax, loosening rigid labour laws, and slashing housing benefits. Macron bulldozed ahead, brushing off mass protests and leaving a fractured opposition scrambling in his wake, thanks to a strong majority in parliament.<\/p>\n
LONG UNRAVELLING<\/p>\n
Things started to unravel when he lost his majority after his 2022 re-election.<\/p>\n
The pension reform he campaigned on, which increased the minimum retirement age to 64 from 62, had to be rammed through parliament without a vote, sparking violent protests.<\/p>\n
His failed gamble to call early elections last year sealed the fate of his domestic agenda, setting the stage for the current debacle.<\/p>\n
With a hung parliament split into three ideologically opposed blocs, Macron became dependent on either the far-right or the left to govern.<\/p>\n
The Socialists, who gained leverage after the far-right said it would vote against the government no matter what, demanded a high-profile concession to reclaim leadership on the left from the more radical France Unbowed – and they got it.<\/p>\n
The pension retreat is unlikely to satisfy them for long.<\/p>\n
The suspension doesn’t guarantee support for the rest of Lecornu’s draft budget – especially the belt-tightening measures aimed at bringing France’s budget deficit below 5%.<\/p>\n
“We have made no commitments on the budget,” Socialist leader Boris Vallaud said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
That means other planks of Macron’s legacy might come under pressure, especially his tax cuts for the wealthy.<\/p>\n
When asked what will remain of Macron’s legacy, his entourage now point only to his international impact.<\/p>\n
“Pension reforms are never what is put to a president’s credit. What we remember presidents for is how they handled crises,” one close ally said. “Rearming Europe, Palestinian recognition. Maybe tomorrow there’ll be other conquests.”<\/p>\n
($1 = 0.8576 euros)<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Michel RoseEditing by Gabriel Stargardter and Gareth Jones)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Michel Rose PARIS (Reuters) -In a 2018 interview with Fox News ahead of his first state visit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[74940,34,2000,299,23427,36,160855,48471,12338,165128],"class_list":{"0":"post-503968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-economic-reform","9":"tag-emmanuel-macron","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-fox-news","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-political-turmoil","15":"tag-presidential-election","16":"tag-sebastien-lecornu","17":"tag-structural-reform"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115383486819061613","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}