• Emmanuel Macron claims in TV interview: 'I am not cut off'
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[QUOTE] The French president Emmanuel Macron has angrily denied he was cut off from real life or held working-class people in disdain in his first live primetime interview after five months in power. Macron organised the rare TV appearance on Sunday night in part to counter the damaging image among his critics that he was a “president for the rich” who cares more about the wealthy than the struggling. On air, he rejected the label, saying the very term pitted French people against one another and sparked “sad emotions” in the country. In recent weeks, some of Macron’s policies, such as watering down France’s deeply symbolic wealth tax by applying it only to property, had led to him being labelled a “president of the rich” by political opponents — a negative tag that had previously damaged the rightwing Nicolas Sarkozy. But Macron stood by his easing of the wealth tax, saying he wanted wealthy French people who had fled the tax system to return and invest in business. He said: “I don’t believe in the French jealousy that seeks to tax success. That is huge hypocrisy. What was the result of the wealth tax? We lost a lot of talent.” Sitting in a new corner-office in the Élysée palace, decorated with street art and modern paintings, Macron insisted: “I’m not here to manage or reform, I’m here to transform [France].” The pro-business centrist who beat the far-right Marine Le Pen to win the presidency in May had until now shied away from traditional French presidential TV appearances. Instead, he has preferred giving lofty, lengthy speeches – typically on the future of the European Union – punctuated by occasional flippant comments during public walkabouts. But after Macron’s approval polls ratings fell this summer and then stabilised in recent weeks, the young president sought to address the voters who were struggling to understand the real meaning and implications of his political project and the nature of “macronism”, which claims to be both left and right at the same time. The 39-year-old president was under pressure to set out what his proposed “radical transformation of France” would mean for regular households in the next five years. He insisted that his loosening of labour laws in favour of businesses – which he has called the most ambitious French reform of the postwar era – did not equate to a “hyper free-market” model that would destroy rights, saying instead that it would help all workers. His next phase is to overhaul unemployment benefits and training schemes. He promised that the results would be felt in the French economy and society within one to two years.[/QUOTE] [URL]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/15/emmanuel-macron-to-give-first-live-television-interview[/URL]
News flash: People are pretty critical of neolib politics right now. It's sort of a microcosm of the political environment in general - People begrudgingly vote for something, not because they want it but because its preferable to the alternative.
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