France’s Macron seeks to relaunch economic reforms

Significance

Among those policies are measures targeted at youth unemployment and social care for older people, aimed at attracting left-wing support. Most importantly, Macron has committed to relaunching his controversial pension reforms, which triggered widespread social unrest in late 2019 and early 2020.

Impacts

• Mandatory vaccination could trigger protests and legal action against the government.
• The centre-right Republicans could take support from Macron if they unite around a strong presidential candidate over the coming months.
• Macron will likely push for looser EU fiscal rules to facilitate more government spending beyond 2022.