President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday sought to breathe new life into his final term with a promise for a “stronger and fairer” France, at a rare news conference peppered with a string of announcements aimed at forging greater civic responsibility and security.On the international front, Macron promised continued support for Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion.Entering even into the daily lives of families, he announced that he wanted to “regulate the use of screens among young children”, though it was not immediately clear how this would be implemented.The president, accused by opponents of being aloof and even of having monarchical tendencies, regularly answers questions from reporters while abroad but has made a habit of almost never holding a full-scale press conference at home.
But Macron is hoping to reboot a second term in office hobbled by the lack of a parliamentary majority, after mass protests against a pensions reform and divisions within his ranks over an immigration bill last year.
Analysts say the Elysee is genuinely concerned that the far-right National Rally (RN) led by Marine Le Pen and her youthful protege Jordan Bardella, 28, could defeat pro-Macron forces not just in European elections in June but also in the 2027 presidential vote.
Macron accused the RN of being the “party of collective impoverishment” and “lies”.
“I am pleased to have been able to prevent this operation (by defeating the far-right in the previous 2022 presidential election) and I will do everything to continue this, because it is good for the country,” Macron said.
But writing on X, Le Pen said that Macron’s “great meeting with the nation” had simply been over two hours of “interminable chatter” without “vision and above all without solutions to the critical problems of the French”.
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