PARIS, Jan 17, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday sought
to breathe new life into his final term with a promise for a "stronger and
fairer" France, at a rare news conference peppered with a string of
announcements aimed at forging greater civic responsibility and security.

With over three years of his second and final term to run, Macron has been on
the back foot in recent weeks after a series of crises and a growing
challenge from the far right.

Last week, he announced a new cabinet with a pronounced tilt to the right,
naming Gabriel Attal, 34, as France's youngest-ever prime minister, and
followed this with his first full-scale domestic press conference in half a
decade.

He announced a trial that could lead to school uniforms becoming compulsory
in the next two years, said all children should learn France's national
anthem "La Marseillaise", and unveiled an idea for all schoolchildren to take
drama courses.

"I am convinced that we have the basis to succeed," Macron said, telling
reporters gathered under the chandeliers of the Elysee Palace "our children
will live better tomorrow than we live today".

"France will be stronger... if we are more united, if we re-learn to share
values, a common culture, respect in the classroom, in the street, in public
transport and in shops," he said, watched by his new cabinet team.

- Violence spreading -

On the international front, Macron promised continued support for Ukraine as
it fights Russia's invasion.

"The greatest risk for me is the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine," he
said.

"We cannot let Russia win, because then the very security of Europe and the
entire Russian neighbourhood would be called into question."

Macron also spoke of the risk of violence spreading in the Middle East as a
result of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

"Continuing the operations as they are being carried out today means taking a
long-term risk, given what this is doing to the whole region and to the
security of Israel itself," he said.

Macron added that as a way to "avoid any escalation" of violence in the
region, Paris "decided not to join" strikes carried out by the United States
and Britain against Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen.

US and British forces have been bombing the rebels since Friday in response
to mounting Huthi missile attacks on vessels in the vital shipping lanes
since the Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel.

- 'Indulgence' -

Entering even into the daily lives of families, he announced that he wanted
to "regulate the use of screens among young children", though it was not
immediately clear how this would be implemented.

Macron also promised order by "better controlling our borders, by fighting
against uncivilised behaviour with a doubling of the police presence in our
streets, by fighting against drugs, by fighting against radical Islam".

His comments came as his Education Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera, promoted in
a cabinet reshuffle to head a new super ministry of education and sports, is
being bitterly attacked over her decision to send all three of her children
to a private school.

The minister said she sent one child to a private school because of teacher
and staffing shortages in his public school.

She was loudly booed Tuesday as she visited her son's former establishment in
a bid to clear the air with teachers.

Macron, already under fire for not appointing women to top offices of state,
told the news conference that her comments had been "clumsy" and that she had
been right to later apologise.

But with the minister watching on, Macron said he felt "indulgence for her"
as he had himself offended people, "in particular women", at the start of his
term in office.

- Far-right fears -

The president, accused by opponents of being aloof and even of having
monarchical tendencies, regularly answers questions from reporters while
abroad but has made a habit of almost never holding a full-scale press
conference at home.

But Macron is hoping to reboot a second term in office hobbled by the lack of
a parliamentary majority, after mass protests against a pensions reform and
divisions within his ranks over an immigration bill last year.

Analysts say the Elysee is genuinely concerned that the far-right National
Rally (RN) led by Marine Le Pen and her youthful protege Jordan Bardella, 28,
could defeat pro-Macron forces not just in European elections in June but
also in the 2027 presidential vote.

Macron accused the RN of being the "party of collective impoverishment" and
"lies".

"I am pleased to have been able to prevent this operation (by defeating the
far-right in the previous 2022 presidential election) and I will do
everything to continue this, because it is good for the country," Macron
said.

But writing on X, Le Pen said that Macron's "great meeting with the nation"
had simply been over two hours of "interminable chatter" without "vision and
above all without solutions to the critical problems of the French".