Elisabeth Borne gave her general policy speech on Wednesday July 6 at the Palais-Bourbon. Faced with hostile parliamentarians, she exposed the government’s roadmap while addressing the French and the opposition. Despite some boos, the Prime Minister announced several key executive measures.
She began her speech by calling on groups of MPs to find “compromises” and “build together” solutions to energy price or climate challenges, adding that “disorder and instability are not options”.
She will lead “for each subject a dense consultation”: “We will approach each text in a spirit of dialogue, compromise and openness”, she insisted, calling for the construction of “project majorities”.
“Trust cannot be decreed a priori, it will be forged, text after text, project after project, because we will work in good faith and on good terms, as the French demand of us”.
Ms. Borne set out the three principles of her action. First “environmental responsibility”: “We must take into account the environmental impact of all our measures”. Then “fiscal responsibility”: “In 2026, we will have to start lowering the debt. In 2027, we will have to reduce the public deficit below 3%”. This will require undertaking the “necessary reforms”. Third principle: “No tax increases”.
Élisabeth Borne spoke about the meaning of being a woman head of government, paying tribute to the Republic having paved the way for “so many women” before her, such as “Simone Veil, whose strength and courage (her) inspire this lectern”, and “Édith Cresson, first woman to become Prime Minister”.
“Full employment is within our reach,” assured Élisabeth Borne. “Work remains for me a major lever of emancipation”, affirmed the Prime Minister, stressing that at 7.3%, the unemployment rate is “the lowest for 15 years”.
“We can no longer continue to have, on the one hand, the State which accompanies job seekers, on the other, the regions which take care of their training and the departments in charge of the integration of beneficiaries RSA,” she said.
“That’s why we want to transform Pôle emploi into France Travail,” she said, suggesting that the public operator should oversee these currently dispersed skills.
On the RSA, “paying an allowance is not enough,” said Elisabeth Borne, without explicitly mentioning the 15 to 20 hours of activity or support mentioned by the president in exchange for the allowance.
“Our country needs a reform of its pension system”, a reform which “will not be uniform”, which “will have to take into account long careers and hardship” and “ensure that seniors are kept in employment” , added the Prime Minister, specifying that this reform would be carried out “in consultation with the social partners, by involving parliamentarians as far upstream as possible”.
The reform, a priori a departure postponed to 64 to 65 years old as Emmanuel Macron had announced, “is not tied up. It won’t be take it or leave it. But it is essential”, assured Élisabeth Borne, in particular “to build new social progress”, “for the prosperity of our country and the sustainability of our pay-as-you-go system”.
The head of government promised “radical responses to the ecological emergency”.
“As of September, we will launch a broad consultation for an energy-climate orientation law,” she announced. She promised to define “emission reduction targets, milestones and appropriate means”. “Each transition will go hand in hand with support for training and retraining,” she insisted.
France will be the “first major ecological nation to get out of fossil fuels” in order to guarantee its “energy sovereignty” against hydrocarbon-producing countries like Russia, she said. For this, it will bet on “renewable and nuclear energies”.
“We will propose to extend the culture pass from sixth grade and to amplify artistic and cultural education. The Pass was currently reserved, in various amounts, for young people from the age of 15.
The head of government wants to fight “against daily insecurity, against cybercrime, against trafficking”. She wants the “refusal of impunity” and wants to “double the time of presence of law enforcement on the ground by 2030”.
On the justice side, “we particularly want to recruit 8,500 additional magistrates and justice personnel”. Élisabeth Borne announced that “for each sentence pronounced to be carried out and to fight against prison overcrowding”, “about forty prison establishments, 15,000 places, will be delivered in the coming years.
Elisabeth Borne named the presidents of all the groups, except the presidents of the La France insoumise group, Mathilde Panot, and the National Rally, Marine Le Pen.