Macron stirs up trouble by asking for a “pause” in European constraints

DECRYPTION – The president, who intends to guarantee “stability” to industrialists and protect French companies from foreign competition, annoyed the opposition and surprised even in his camp.

It is the return of the eternal balance of power between ecological transition and reindustrialization. By reiterating on Friday its call for a “break» in terms of European environmental constraints, Emmanuel Macron renewed his wish to protect the French industry from foreign competition. But he fueled a lively controversy on the left over his ecological ambition, one year before the European elections in spring 2024.

“I prefer factories that respect our European standards, which are the best, rather than those who still want to add standards and always more, but without having any more factories“Launched the Head of State in Dunkirk (North), surrounded by officials and employees in white helmets from an aluminum company. The day before, during the presentation of his “green industry” plan at the Élysée, he had asked for a “regulatory breakin the European Union (EU).

For the President, the Twenty-Seven have already done “more than all the neighbors», and more than the «Americans” and the “Chinese“. They now haveneed for stability“:”We must not make new changes to the rules, because we will lose all the players“, he explained, Thursday, in front of some 300 guests at the Élysée, anxious not to hover “risks” on the “financing» industrial projects.

By choosing to ume these remarks, he accentuated the criticisms coming from the left, while the EU has set itself the objective of carbon neutrality by 2050. “Nothing is wrong with Emmanuel Macron’s statementthundered MEP Yannick Jadot, former environmentalist presidential candidate. The industrial battle is being played out precisely on the ecological transition to make the environment not a constraint, but an opportunity for innovation, relocation and jobs.” “The message sent is catastrophic“, abounds his colleague EELV Karima Delli.

Go until the end

“Macronie now takes up the same speech, word for word, as the European right and far right, who want to kill the implementation of the rest of the European climate package“, lambasted for her part the Insoumise Manon Aubry, co-president of the group of the radical left (GUE) in the European Parliament.

Attacks which at the same time found an echo even in the trade union field:We are not going to sacrifice the environmental issue in the light of the economic issue. It’s very serious to do this and to explain this“, denounced Friday on Franceinfo the general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet.

In response to his opponents, Emmanuel Macron attacked on Friday, from Dunkirk, those who “look for polemics everywhere“and would like him”say anything“. No question of “return to what we have done”, insisted the tenant of the Élysée. “I say now: let’s follow through on our legislative program with the (European) Commission, but let’s not add more“, he developed. A message already established the same morning at the Élysée, where Emmanuel Macron had breakfast with around twenty MEPs from his Renew group.

“Consistency and constancy”

The opportunity to boast of a concern for “stability” regulatory and to exclude the moratorium that the European right is asking for. A way, too, to reure his camp, where some had been worried after his release.

Starting with former EELV MEP Pascal Canfin, who regretted in The world a “unhappy sentence“. “There have been many misunderstandings about this formula. All commitments made, or in the process of being negotiated, are not affected“, reures the macronist MEP Ilana Cicurel. “There is no question of questioning the “Green Deal”!»

According to the various voices raised on Friday, the executive would in fact like the environmental texts of this European “green pact” – around fifty in total, adopted or in the process of being adopted – to be implemented first. , before the famous normative “pause”.

Willingness which concerns including the commitment to an end to thermal engines in the EU by 2035. “There are rules, they are the most demanding on the whole planet: rather than always wanting to reinforce them, you have to apply them“, underlined Friday on CNews the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire.

“Consistency and constancy“Summarizes the Elysée. “Reciprocity“, added Emmanuel Macron, who defends the so-called “mirror” measures: “We must ask everyone who matters to us to do the same.”

Finally, the Head of State ensures that he is able to keep his “at the same time” between his objective of economic growth and his ecological commitments. “We are going to demonstrate that we know how to do reindustrialization by doing ecology”, he insisted on Friday.

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