France is sick because politicians throw taxpayers money at problems instead of addressing them properly, presidential hopeful Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday as he set out a first batch of ideas to reform the country's political system, reports FRANCE 24.
The former economy minister who quit President François Hollande's government this summer slammed the whole political class for failing to reform a country struggling with endemic unemployment and shaken by deadly attacks.
"When politics is no longer a mission but a profession, politicians become more self-serving than public servants," Macron told a rally of more than a 1,000 people in the eastern city of Strasbourg.
The one-time investment banker, who rose to prominence as an adviser to Hollande and then a minister in his government who advocated in vain for bolder reforms, was addressing the first of three rallies outside Paris.
Although he has yet to say whether he will run for president in next year's elections, the rallies are his platform for unveiling his so-called "diagnosis" for the country.
On the day the Socialist government ordered 21 high-speed trains in a pre-election bid to preserve jobs at a struggling locomotive plant, Macron also criticised the knee-jerk reactions of French politicians.
"The only way governments or would-be governments respond to ills these days is by seeking to lower the temperature... and that tends to mean public spending," he told reporters in a briefing ahead of the rally.
"We can't fix the real problems if we only cauterise and don't treat the roots of evil," he added.