He also denounced the deterioration of the education system, mentioning a decline in mastery of writing essentials, and highlighted the demographic imbalance resulting from the aging of the French population.
Bayrou also addressed issues of security, justice, and immigration, emphasizing the need to control arrivals and to integrate those already living in the country through employment, language learning, and respect for the essential principles of French society.
“You can bring down the government, but you can't change reality,” he warned parliamentarians in vain, alerting them, amid interruptions, to the “vital emergency” facing the European Union's second-largest economy due to its “excessive indebtedness”.
In this scenario, the pressure on Macron is intensifying, with several possible alternatives, none of them risk-free. Right-wing leader Marine Le Pen argued that Macron has the moral “obligation” to call early legislative elections.
According to polls, these elections would once again leave an Assembly fragmented into three blocs—left, center-right, and right—without clear majorities, although with an increase for Le Pen's party and a decline for the ruling party.
