Macron gathers his ministers for his last political back-to-school meeting at the Élysée Palace

Emmanuel Macron convened a cabinet meeting on Monday, August 24, the last of his term before the presidential election next April. The meeting opened against a backdrop of tense budget debates, deadly fires, and persistent geopolitical tensions.

The members of the government were expected at the Élysée Palace at 10 a.m. for this Council of Ministers meeting, which symbolically marks the end of an era. Emmanuel Macron, constitutionally barred from running for a third term, betrayed a certain melancholy during his speech commemorating the Allied landings in Provence a week ago in Bormes-les-Mimosas. "Nine years, that's really an era," he remarked to the mayor of the Var town, before adding, "I'm going to miss you."

The budget has emerged as the first major obstacle of this new political season. The task is all the more perilous given the fragmented political landscape following the dissolution of the National Assembly in June 2024, and the fact that the presidential campaign is beginning to influence the calculations of each side. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is preparing his fourth bid for the presidency, has already promised on Sunday to censure the Lecornu government over a draft budget bill he predicts will be riddled with "sweeping cuts," in a context of a deficit theoretically projected at 5% of GDP this year.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu responded on Saturday by warning parliamentarians against the temptation to wait until after the presidential election to vote on the budget, which he described as "the path to chaos." He promised to take "the time necessary for a compromise." The government is proceeding cautiously: in recent days, trial balloons and denials have followed one another regarding the proposed savings measures. The partial de-indexing of pensions for wealthy retirees appears ready to be implemented, as does the renewal of the surtax on the profits of large companies.

The start of the school year, scheduled for September 1st, was also on the agenda, with particular attention paid to the areas ravaged by the summer fires, notably in Gironde, Landes, and Var. In Mayotte, schoolchildren returned to their classrooms on Monday. Sébastien Lecornu is scheduled to visit the archipelago on Wednesday and Thursday to assess the situation one year after the adoption of the planning law for the rebuilding of Mayotte, passed in response to the devastation caused by Cyclone Chido.

The Constitutional Council's rejection of the ban on social media for those under 15 has complicated the government's plans on an issue Macron intends to highlight as a key achievement. Lecornu has been tasked with working "as quickly as possible" on a "legally sound" draft of the text, which was initially scheduled to come into effect on September 1st.

Following the cabinet meeting, Emmanuel Macron was scheduled to participate via videoconference in a meeting of the "Coalition of the Willing," the alliance of countries supporting Ukraine. The French president announced his intention to increase the delivery of interceptor aircraft to Kyiv, as Russia continues to launch daily salvos of ballistic and cruise missiles at the country. The European agenda, particularly in light of renewed trade tensions between Canada and the United States, was also expected to be discussed with the ministers.