The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, warned on Wednesday (26) that if there are countries that prevent the return of their citizens expelled by France, there will be a decrease in development aid and said that the “hard” position with Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco has paid off.
“You must have heard a lot about the tension with Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, We told them that if they didn’t accept those expelled, we would reduce the visas. This attitude worked because, in two years, we expelled 3,000 irregulars who posed a danger to public order,” Macron said in an interview with the broadcaster France. 2.
In this sense, the French president also chose to condition development aid to countries that do not cooperate with expulsions, although he explained that this mechanism can only work if it is applied throughout the European Union (EU).
Macron also clarified that it does not “establish an existential connection between immigrants ration and insecurity”, but stressed that “when analyzing the data of crimes in Paris, illegal immigrants are very present”.
For the French president, the objective is to expel “100% of the most dangerous foreigners who are illegally staying in France.”
In the long interview with France 2, Macron also addressed the impact of inflation on purchasing power, the controversial pension reform and the challenges of the labor market, in a context of social tension and strikes in France.
Macron defended a better distribution of wealth generated by companies in the country because, according to the official, “there are millions of French people with work, but who do not live well with it”. For this reason, he asked employers to negotiate with their employees.
“You cannot create value if it is not distributed fairly, the first thing a company must do is invest and then distribute (wealth ) to shareholders and workers,” he reiterated.
Macron also announced that his government wants that if a company increases the dividends it gives to shareholders, it implements a similar mechanism to increase workers’ wages.
The French president clarified, however, that it is not up to the state to decree salary increases because France “is not a controlled economy”, and warned that a general salary increase would be harmful due to the many jobs that would be destroyed.
“We will destroy millions and millions of jobs if we index inflation to wages”, he opined.
Furthermore, Macron defends the taxation of companies that have made extraordinary profits in the context of war, such as energy companies.
The ruler van gloried in the fact that his country “protects itself more” than the rest of Europe, since its inflation is lower (about 6%) than 10% of many countries in the euro zone, and recalled that the rise in electricity and gas prices was dampened thanks to the efforts of the State and companies.
“The increase for homes will be of 15%, but not of 100% as it should be”, added the president, who explained that small and micro-enterprises and small municipalities will also be protected by the price increase ceiling.
On raising the retirement age, Macron confirmed his need for the sake of the health of public accounts and announced that in 2031 the French will retire at 65 years and not at 62.
“As we live longer, we have to work more years”, commented the French president, who said that this is the only alternative if they do not want to increase social contributions or reduce the value of pensions.
