France. Macron promises spending cuts, pension and dole reform in address to parliament

Macron is only the third French president to address the Congress, as the event is called, meeting with great pomp and circumstance at the former royal palace in Versailles. He follows Nicolas Sarkozy, who called the first one during the world financial crisis in 2009, and François Hollande, who summoned the Congress after the 13 November 2015 Paris attacks. The president repeated his intention to make the meeting, which cost some 290,000 euros this year, an annual event, much to the...