Macron to address Covid and economic relaunch in Bastille Day interview

President Macron will use the traditional Bastille Day television interview, a custom which he had dropped earlier in his presidency, to remind the French people of the lingering danger of Covid-19 and outline plans for the remaining two years of his presidency.

Elysee officials said the president would address the health crisis as well as several measures to revive economic growth.        

The president will be able to match his no-doubt fulsome tributes to health workers with a concrete package of 8 billion euros, agreed on Monday night after several weeks of negotiations with health sector representatives.

He is also likely to outline measures to help out businesses, government schemes to get young people into employment and how he plans to implement many of the ideas which emerged from the Citizens convention on the Climate earlier this year.

More tough times ahead
He will also address the anti-racism protests in France in line with the Black Lives Matter movement and he is expected to announce some new anti-discrimination measures.

Prime Minister, Jean Castex, announced last week that he will move quickly to finalise a controversial pensions overhaul suspended by the crisis, so Macron is likely to face tough times after the summer break.  

On the 50^th anniversary of the death of General Charles de Gaulle and the 80^th anniversary of his famous call to his countrymen to join him against the Nazis, Macron will also be keen to remind the nation of the virtues of resilience and unity.

For the first time since 1945, authorities have called off the annual military parade along the Champs-Elysees in Paris that marks the storming of the Bastille prison on July 14^th 1789, that launched the French Revolution.  Just 2,000 soldiers - half the usual number - will gather at the Place de la Concorde today.