In Lofty Versailles Speech, Macron Tells the French to Prepare for Change
The Versailles speech was boycotted by members of Parliament on the far left, already taking up arms against Mr. Macron over his plans to overhaul France’s labor codes,
and already casting the new president as the destroyer of the nation’s social protections.
Macron said that It’s about nothing less than reweaving, between French citizens and the republic, the relationship
that has dissolved under the mechanical exercise of power,
By ADAM NOSSITERJULY 3, 2017
PARIS — Declaring that citizens had an "overwhelming thirst for renewal," President Emmanuel Macron urged France’s legislators in a speech on Monday to live up to the "gravity of the circumstances," warning against the fear
and cynicism wrought by poverty, terrorism, new forms of labor and ecological change.
But Mr. Macron was making a point: French citizens were demanding change after
years of stagnation, change was needed and he was the man to bring it about.
Mr. Macron has been criticized — most recently over the weekend — for slighting references
to the less fortunate in French society, and to those who are not economically successful.
