In Lofty Versailles Speech, Macron Tells the French to Prepare for Change<br />The Versailles speech was boycotted by members of Parliament on the far left, already taking up arms against Mr. Macron over his plans to overhaul France’s labor codes,<br />and already casting the new president as the destroyer of the nation’s social protections.<br />Macron said that It’s about nothing less than reweaving, between French citizens and the republic, the relationship<br />that has dissolved under the mechanical exercise of power,<br />By ADAM NOSSITERJULY 3, 2017<br />PARIS — Declaring that citizens had an "overwhelming thirst for renewal," President Emmanuel Macron urged France’s legislators in a speech on Monday to live up to the "gravity of the circumstances," warning against the fear<br />and cynicism wrought by poverty, terrorism, new forms of labor and ecological change.<br />But Mr. Macron was making a point: French citizens were demanding change after<br />years of stagnation, change was needed and he was the man to bring it about.<br />Mr. Macron has been criticized — most recently over the weekend — for slighting references<br />to the less fortunate in French society, and to those who are not economically successful.
