Visiting Vierzon, Emmanuel Macron questioned about “everyday” problems

Four months before the presidential election, Emmanuel Macron arrived in Vierzon (Cher) on Tuesday, the first stage of a two-day trip devoted to “everyday” problems, especially in small and medium-sized towns in rural departments.

In the middle of a crowd, massed on the main street of the city center, the Head of State was questioned by inhabitants and traders on various questions such as the maintenance of public services, the difficulties of local hospital or the lack of specialist doctors, noted an AFP journalist.

“It’s small pensions that we all have”

To a journalist asking him if he was in the countryside, Emmanuel Macron replied: “I have been traveling for four and a half years, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse”. As in most of his travels, he was alerted to the weakness of certain pensions. “It’s small pensions that we all have,” said a former maintenance worker, claiming to touch 800 euros per month. “We have revalued the minimum old age”, assured the president.

He was also to discuss with the elected officials of the Coeur de ville operation to revitalize downtown areas. In Vierzon, “there are always the curtains drawn” but “we have reconquered around thirty businesses in the heart of the city in three to four years”, underlined the Communist mayor Nicolas Sansu on France Inter, welcoming this plan. Emmanuel Macron will then go to Bourges where he will meet social workers and visit a textile reintegration workshop. In the evening, he will attend the last municipal council of the year in Chateaumeillant, a small town of just over 2,000 inhabitants in the south of Berry, before having dinner with the elected officials of this town which benefits from the “small towns” program. of tomorrow “.

“Monitoring of commitments”

On Wednesday, the Head of State will chair the Council of Ministers by videoconference from Moulins. Then, in Vichy, he will take stock “on the various projects being deployed in the city supported by the State: revitalization of the city center, development of hydrotherapy, inclusion in Unesco heritage” … He will then discuss with around fifty associations in the city to “salute the strong commitment” of volunteers “while 2021 marks the 120th anniversary of the law on freedom of association”, according to the presidency.

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This trip, which takes place three years after the eruption of the “yellow vests” movement, follows those organized since the start of the school year in Marseille, Saint-Etienne, in the North, Aisne and the Somme, during which Emmanuel Macron has made a “follow-up of the commitments” made since 2017 on social, economic and daily life issues. The latest polls show that purchasing power and health are at the top of the concerns of the French as the presidential election approaches.