France. Macron government to tackle poverty, pensions, health
The last parliamentary session ended on a sour note for President Emmanuel Macron and his government, with the uproar over presidential bodyguard Alexandre Benalla, who was caught on camera assaulting student protesters while wearing a police crash helmet.
The Macron camp is clearly hoping the dust has settled on that question, although the opposition is extremely unlikely to miss any chance to remind the public of such a major embarrassment.
But there will be no change in strategy, the president told the first cabinet of the autumn, vowing to carry on with his reform programme.
Fighting poverty without redistributing wealth
First on the list is an anti-poverty plan, which should have been debated in July but was postponed to September as negotiation of the finer points dragged on.
After suffering more than a year of accusations that their champion is a president of the rich, his more left-inclined supporters, notably those who defected from the Socialist Party to join his Republic on the Move (REM), are anxious to be seen to be doing something for the less privileged.
But what?
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