- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Macron's First Steps as French President to Imply Improvement of Economic Policy

© Sputnik / Irina Kalashnikova / Go to the mediabankFrench President elect Emmanuel Macron on the stage at his victory rally near the Louvre in Paris, France May 7, 2017.
French President elect Emmanuel Macron on the stage at his victory rally near the Louvre in Paris, France May 7, 2017. - Sputnik International
Subscribe
Making his first steps after victory in French presidential election, Emmanuel Macron will focus on the country's economy, experts told Sputnik.

PARIS (Sputnik) — The first activities of Emmanuel Macron as the president of France will be connected to the improvement of the country's economic policies.

"First will be economic policy, following what he was doing earlier as economic minister, cutting excessively bureaucratic burdens in micro-economic regulation, but without becoming a neo-liberal deregulation fanatic. He says he likes the Nordic model, which means a strong social welfare system, efficiently administered," Michael Emerson, Associate Senior Research Fellow at Brussels think tank Centre for European Policy Studies, said.

According to Daniel Boy, Senior Researcher at the Centre for Political Research at the French Sciences Po university (CEVIPOF), Macron will focus on dealing with the unemployment as soon as he starts his activities as a president, because during the elections campaign a lot of Macron's promises concerned this phenomenon.

"It has been a longtime challenge in the French political context: France is facing high unemployment rates and sees low economic growth," Boy stressed.

French president-elect Emmanuel Macron waves at supporters as he arrives on stage before delivering a speech in front of the Pyramid at the Louvre Museum in Paris on May 7, 2017, after the second round of the French presidential election. - Sputnik International
French People in Regions Skeptical About 'President of Rich' Macron
He added that both left and right parties had previously tried to come up with a solution however the efficient actions had not been taken to combat unemployment in France which sees one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe. During her campaign, Macron's rival Marine Le Pen offered a solution to the problem, which implied closing France's borders in the face of globalization.

"Macron has an opposite vision: if we need to live in the globalized world, we need to develop, and change the general attitude regarding labour [abandon the 35-hour workweek], and be more flexible at the same time," Boy suggested.

As for other Macron's activities as the new French president, Emerson mentioned the improvement of the societal relations with the immigrant communities, and the reestablishment of the positive sentiments toward the European Union among the French.

"[Macron's] major priority will be to relaunch positive momentum for the European Union, in the sense of openness to develop new active initiatives, for example in the direction of the European Border Guard, active use of his military in peace or conflict resolution situations, and a sustained support for principled multilateralism. He will stand therefore for a traditional European-style international order," Emerson explained.

However, in order to implement his project, Macron will firstly need to win the parliamentary majority during the French parliamentary elections scheduled for June 11 and 18, according to CEVIPOF's senior researcher.

French far-right presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen exits a voting booth before casting her ballot in Henin Beaumont, France - Sputnik International
Former UKIP Leader: Macron's Policies May Make Le Pen President in 2022 Election
Le Pen's National Front (FN) party is not capable to challenge Macron’s parliamentary majority, but will stay his main opposition force, Boy claimed.

"Giving the existing election procedure, it will not have a hundred of elected [members of parliament], they can have 10, 15 maximum. So the National Front is not a threat to the parliamentary majority, which Macron wants. It’s a threat because it’s a very strong, coherent and hostile opposition, which he is obliged to count with," Boy pointed out.

According to the French Interior Ministry's data, Macron won the second round of the election which took place on Sunday, with 66.1 percent of the ballots against 33.9 percent of voters who had supported Le Pen.

Media reported earlier on Monday, that Macron's inauguration would take place on Sunday.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала