PARIS, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- The New Year's speech of French President Emmanuel Macron would be crucial as France continued to be shaken by a social movement against the government's pension reform plan, experts said.
"Greetings message on New Year's Eve and in early January is an important moment. Emmanuel Macron will have to indicate a positive vision of the country's future and the way out of this crisis," said Xavier Desmaison, president of Antidox, a communication strategy consulting firm.
"We are in a context where no one believes what is said, so that a very clear speech on what (the president) wants to defend has become decisive," he explained.
According to the president's office, Macron will talk about the achievements of his policy, "such as the fall in unemployment, the increase in job creation and the recovery of the country's attractiveness," in a traditional television address on Dec. 31, which coincides this time with social tension.
Acknowledging public anger, the president will also reiterate his determination to keep up the pace of reforms "by inviting the French to resist the temptation to stand still" and to have dialogues to find a way out of the showdown over pension reform.
Midway through his five-year presidency, Macron was wrestling with fierce opposition to his proposal of a point-based pension system, with same rules applying to all regardless of profession or sector, to replace the current system of multiple regimes.
The new system also planned to end a specific regime related to workers of public transport company RATP and SNCF, which allows train drivers and other staff who work underground to retire at 52, a decade earlier than the legal retirement age for a full public pension.
By challenging a taboo, France's youngest president in its modern history had ignited social tension which led to massive street protests and public transport stoppages.
Unions wish to repeat their victory of 1995 when a three-week strike before Christmas paralyzed the country and forced then Prime Minister Alain Juppe to drop retirement reform plan and resign.
Amid tense social context, the New Year speech, scheduled later in the day, would be "the most complicated one during the five-year term," said Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet, professor of political communication at Sciences-Po Paris.
"The expectations are probably too important regarding this speech... It is crucial for the future. (Macron) must explain the true meaning of the reform: to save money or to make social issues? But also to say whether he wants to maintain it or not, and what concessions he is ready to make," Moreau-Chevrolet told Europe 1 local broadcaster.
To Bernard Sananes, president of Elabe pollster, Macron "must express his determination to reform to reassure a part of his electorate" while "show to reformist unions that dialogue is still possible."
Struggling to defuse anger, the government pledged to restart fresh talks with unions on pension reform on Jan. 7. Separate talks will also be held with teachers' and hospital workers' unions from Jan. 13.
However, a new day of mass protest has been called for Jan. 9, suggesting that the French head of state needs more than longer talks to break the impasse over pension overhaul.
