the essential
On the evening of Tuesday, December 31, Emmanuel Macron presented his wishes to French people for the year 2025 in the traditional televised New Year's Eve address. The opportunity for him to look back on the highlights of 2024, both during the period of the Paris Olympics and on the political instability.
“These are his eighth wishes” since his arrival at the Elysée in 2017, but “the first in a slightly different role”, noted one of his relatives before his speech. President Emmanuel Macron presented, this evening of Tuesday, December 31, 2024, his wishes to French citizens.
The traditional televised New Year's Eve address was marked by the highlights that marked France this year, from the Paris Olympic Games to the reconstruction of Notre-Dame and the situation in Mayotte devastated by a cyclone. What to remember from the Head of State's speech at the end of this eventful year.
An illustrated video to get the ball rolling
Unlike his previous speeches, Emmanuel Macron opened his speech with a short video illustrating the events that marked the year – the Olympics, Notre-Dame, abortion in the Constitution or even the 80 years of the Liberation.
The dissolution “brought more divisions”
The subject was expected on the table. Emmanuel Macron returned to the upheavals of this political year marked by crises, starting with the dissolution of the National Assembly. “The dissolution has for the moment brought more divisions to the Assembly than solutions for the French,” he admitted. This is the first time that the Head of State has acknowledged, half-heartedly, that the dissolution was an error. For some time around him, voices asking him to do so had been multiplying. In his wishes, the president called for making 2025 that of “collective recovery” to allow “stability”.
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But far from remaining there, Emmanuel Macron stressed that “the current Assembly nevertheless represents the country in its diversity and therefore also in its divisions”. Emmanuel Macron also thanked Michel Barnier for his mandate at Matignon and “presented his best wishes” to the new Prime Minister and his government. It was also the first time that the president spoke since the appointment of François Bayrou on December 13.
From the Olympics to Notre-Dame: the president's pride in remaining “united”
Emmanuel Macron wanted to position himself as the guarantor of national unity. Unity was thus the common thread of his remarks. After taking inventory against the backdrop of archive images of the “successes” of 2025: the constitutionalization of abortion, the commemorations of the landing, the Olympic Games which showed “a united country from Saint-Denis to Tahiti” and the reopening of Notre-Dame, he insisted: “united, determined and united, we succeeded because we were together”.
“Together, this year, we have proven that impossible is not French,” he declared, inviting the French people to “keep the best of what we have been.”
The French called to decide on “determining issues”
The president expressed the desire to see the people decide on “decisive issues” for the economy, security, democracy and the “children” of the country. Emmanuel Macron, however, did not explicitly use the term “referendums”. But the Élysée told us this Tuesday evening that this announcement could open the way to referendums or citizens' conventions.
Still on the political level, Emmanuel Macron hoped that “the year that opens will be that of democratic recovery, that of compromise because we cannot afford to wait… 2025 must be a year of action. It is necessary to adopt a budget,” he assured. And seeming to take his Prime Minister by the hand, he listed the projects which seemed to him to be priorities and likely to create a political consensus: “security, education, health and the improvement of public services”. He also assured that he would ensure public finances were maintained.
President calls for 'European awakening'
In his speech, Emmanuel Macron pleaded for “a Europe which must accelerate”, thus calling for “a European awakening”. For him, Europeans “must put an end to naivety and say no to trade laws dictated by others that we are the only ones to still respect”, after a controversial EU-Mercosur agreement at the beginning of December. “Say no to everything that makes us depend on others without compensation and without preparing our future,” he continued.
“Great nations know, in moments of crisis and doubt, to see far, we are there,” he concluded with his eyes turned towards 2050. “The peace of the coming quarter of a century depends on today” , assured the President before calling one last time on the French to be “united, determined and fraternal”.
Investing for military rearmament
The president estimated that the “security and proper functioning of our democracies (were) never acquired”, while the conflicts are increasing in the Middle East and in Ukraine and threaten “our security and our unity […]”. The war in Ukraine, which will soon enter its fourth year, could experience a decisive turning point with the accession of Donald Trump to the White House.
