Emmanuel Macron wants to regulate French children’s screen time, test compulsory school uniform, and is not against all primary schoolchildren having to learn the national anthem, he has told a press conference, promising a “common sense” France.
The French president, who is trying to limit the potential gains of the far right in the European elections, set out his vision for the coming years focusing on law and order, education and pro-business policy, days after appointing France’s youngest ever prime minister, Gabriel Attal.
Macron said his plans were for “France to stay France”. He focused on low- to middle-income voters’ struggle to live well, and promised to boost businesses by reducing red tape, as he sought to move on from last year’s contested pension changes and immigration law.
Macron said he had recently gathered scientific experts to ask them to “determine the best use of screens” for young children. He said French families felt lost as to how much TV, phone and computer time children should have. He said scientific experts should give clear guidelines to say: “before a certain age, it’s not reasonable to put a child in front of a screen.”
But asked what age and what potential restrictions, he said he could not currently say. “There might be bans, there might be restrictions,” he said.
Macron confirmed that compulsory uniforms would be tried out in about 100 schools, adding there would be more civic instruction classes and that all children in junior high school should have access to theatre classes.
He said he wanted to work to reverse France’s declining birthrate, and set up a national programme to fight the rise in infertility. He said parental leave would be reshaped, which he said would result in better pay for a period of six months for either parent.
As he seeks to counter Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, the biggest single opposition party in the French parliament, Macron confirmed he would cut taxes for middle-earners. This is part of his attempt to appeal to French workers who earn relatively modest salaries, but too much to claim state aid. He said “There is a blind spot in France, which means many of our compatriots earn too much to get help but not enough to live well.”
He said Le Pen’s party did not have any kind of viable manifesto and did not tell the truth to voters. “The National Rally has become the party of easy anger,” he said.
Macron said he had “no regret” over defending the actor’s Gérard Depardieu’s “presumption of innocence” as the film star is under formal investigation for rape and under scrutiny over sexist comments. Feminists and politicians on the left had reacted with outrage when Macron last month described Depardieu as the target of a “manhunt”.
Macron said: “If I have one regret, it is not stressing enough the importance of the words of women who are victims of this type of violence.”
Macron said he would travel to Ukraine next month to finalise a bilateral security guarantee deal and Paris would deliver more sophisticated weaponry in the coming weeks.
The trip comes at a time when political infighting in the US and EU has held up two major packages of assistance for Ukraine.
France has been working to complete a bilateral security guarantee accord with Ukraine to help boost its finances and defences against Russia with a view to deterring Moscow from future aggression.
Macron said 40 Scalp long-range missiles and several hundred bombs would be delivered in the coming weeks.
“With these deliveries, I will go myself to Ukraine in February and finalise these texts,” Macron told a news conference, adding that Europeans would need to ensure Ukraine could continue to defend itself against Russia.
Kyiv is seeking to maintain flows of military and financial aid from its western allies after nearly two years of fighting a full-scale Russian invasion.
British prime minister Rishi Sunak was in Kyiv last week to sign a new security agreement and announce an increase in military funding for Ukraine to buy drones, including surveillance, long-range strike and sea drones.
Macron said Russia could not be allowed to defeat Ukraine otherwise the security of Europe would be put at risk.
