Violence, “Islamist entryism”, taxes, unemployment insurance… what to remember from Gabriel Attal’s intervention on BFMTV

Gabriel Attal, Thursday evening, on BFMTV. MAXPPP

For his hundredth day in Matignon, Gabriel Attal defended his record at length Thursday evening on BFMTV, after promising a rapid response from his government in the face of "the’addiction to violence" of some of the youth during a speech in Viry-Châtillon (Essonne).

No question of deviating from the line. During a special broadcast on BFMTV on Thursday evening, the Prime Minister defended his action step by step, starting with the mantra "no tax cuts" dear to Emmanuel Macron and his majority.

As proof: the presidential commitment to a two billion reduction in taxes for households "will be kept", assured Mr. Attal, who nevertheless matched it with an equivalent economy measure.

The Prime Minister did not wish to detail the new envelope of 10 billion euros in savings expected in June, after that decided in February. Faced with budgetary deterioration, in 2025, the executive intends to achieve another 20 billion in additional savings.

Reform unemployment insurance

The Prime Minister maintained his desire to reform unemployment insurance, pleading for a tightening of affiliation conditions, because "we want that there are more French people working", while wishing that "fewer French people" are "stuck at minimum wage".

"The main thing is salary progression", he commented, after Michelin's announcement of the establishment of a “decent salary” for its employees. The Prime Minister also confirmed that "the students most in difficulty" would return from summer vacation before the others. The date of August 20 had been mentioned.

This broadcast was scheduled after a first regal sequence from the Prime Minister, who announced Thursday morning a series of measures and a "consultation" of eight weeks to deal with the violence of part of the youth.

"The Republic strikes back", launched Gabriel Attal from the square in front of the town hall of Viry-Châtillon (Essonne), a Parisian suburban town recently marked by the death of Shemseddine, 15, beaten near his college.

It signaled "the general mobilization of the Nation to reconnect with its adolescents, to curb violence", declared Mr. Attal in a half-hour speech, full of proposals and arguments. ;ideas put to debate to nourish this "consultation" requested Wednesday by Emmanuel Macron during the Council of Ministers.

"Burst of authority"

The "consultation", particularly with parliamentarians and mayors, will be the subject of a progress update in four weeks and a conclusion in two months. Or after the European elections of June 9.

For measures, particularly those relating to school, intended to apply at the start of the school year, explained Matignon. Next week, the Prime Minister will have lunch with mayors of cities hit by the riots in the summer of 2023.

On Monday, he will visit a boarding school in Nice. "There are twice as many teenagers implicated for assault and battery, four times as many for drug trafficking drugs, and seven times more in armed robberies than in the general population", he listed Thursday, also targeting " Islamist entryism which is growing". He wanted to be more direct on BFMTV by denouncing " more or less organized groups which seek to carry out Islamist entryism", advocating "the precepts of sharia, particularly in schools".

"During the day, the place is at school"

Authority, education… The youngest Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic takes up his favorite themes, which figured prominently in his general policy declaration. "You break it, you repair it…", he then said.

Among the first measures to attack "the evil at the root", the Prime Minister affirmed: "All middle school students will be in school every day of the week, between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m." because "during the day, the place is at school, working and learning".

Mention on diploma

He insisted on the responsibility of parents, and recalled that a commission would make proposals by the end of the month to regulate addiction to screens, considered partly responsible for the "drift" of certain young people.

Gabriel Attal, who spoke before his speech with the teams and beneficiaries of the MJC de Viry, also announced that disruptive students should be & quot;sanctioned" in obtaining their school diplomas.

"The condition for erasing this mention" would be "the carrying out of activities of&rsquo ;general interest and of course, to hold your own, he clarified.

What about the minority excuse?

On the judicial side, the head of government said he was ready to open the debate on "mitigations to the excuse of minority& quot; in criminal convictions and on the possibility of "establishing an immediate appearance before the court for young people from the age of 16, so that they have to answer for their actions immediately like adults.

So many measures likely to please the right-wing electorate in a very delicate context for the majority, struggling in the polls for the European elections next June and under threat of a motion of censure in the National Assembly triggered by Les Républicains.