French President Macron vows to lift the nation’s state of emergency

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed Monday to lift a state of emergency that has been in place since 2015, but also to harden permanent security measures to fight Islamic extremism and other threats.

Laying out his political, security and diplomatic priorities at an extraordinary joint session of Parliament at the Palace of Versailles, Macron said his government “will work to prevent any new attack, and we will work to fight [the assailants] without pity, without regrets, without weakness.”

At the same time, he insisted on the need to “guarantee full respect for individual liberties” amid concerns that new measures would allow police too many powers.

Macron vowed to maintain France’s military interventions against extremists abroad, especially in Africa’s Sahel region and in Iraq and Syria. He also insisted on the importance of maintaining “the path of negotiation, of dialogue” for long-term solutions.

In his bid to strengthen the European Union after Britain’s vote to leave, he announced Europe-wide public conferences this year to try to reinvigorate the bloc.

He said he understood why many Europeans see the EU as bureaucratic, distant and uncaring.

“I firmly believe in Europe, but I don’t find this skepticism unjustified,” he said.

He added that European countries should work more closely to help political refugees while fighting migrant-smuggling and strengthening borders against illegal migration.

Macron has pledged to fulfill his campaign promise to bring about deep changes in France, notably through labor reform and a series of measures to increase transparency and ethics in politics.

Critics who fear Macron is trying to amass too much power organized protests over Monday’s event.

Lawmakers from the far-left party of Jean-Luc Melenchon and communists decided not to attend the speech in protest against what they call a “presidential monarchy.”

After his new centrist party dominated parliamentary elections and split the opposition, political rivals are comparing Macron to Napoleon, or the Roman king of the gods, Jupiter.

They are especially angry that he wants to strip worker protections through a decree-like procedure, allowing little parliamentary debate.

Critics have complained about the cost of the Versailles event and accused Macron of convening it for reasons of self-interest instead of national need. The last such joint Parliament session was after the November 2015 Islamic extremist attacks, the deadliest violence to hit France in half a century.