PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday sought to breathe new life into his final term in power with a promise for a “stronger and fairer” France at a rare news conference.

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.

With concerns over education riding high in France, Macron’s comments were peppered with promises to improve civic responsibility among young people and crack down on radicalism.

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

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

Watched by his new cabinet team, Macron announced what he described as a “civic rearmament”, saying that “every generation of French people must learn what the Republic means”.

‘Common culture’

“France will be stronger... if we are more united, if we re-learn to share values, a common culture, respect in classroom, in the street, in public transport and in shops,” he said.

Entering even into the daily lives of families, he announced that he wanted to “regulate the use of screens among young children”, although 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 the 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 row, which has overshadowed the cabinet reshuffle announced last week, was sparked when she said she sent one child to a private school over short staffing at his public establishment.

The minister was loudly booed Tuesday as she visited the boy’s former school in a bid to clear the air with teachers.

‘Collective impoverishment’

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.

Instead, Macron has preferred to communicate through videos and posts on social media, as well as formal addresses to the nation at times of acute domestic or international crisis.

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 polls.

Macron accused the RN of being the “party of collective impoverishment” and “of 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”. AFP