Analyst: Prabowo's May Day Speech Maintains Balance Between Workers and Business Owners

The focus is not only on workers, but business owners are also watching and listening to the key points in the speech delivered by the president. Jakarta (ANTARA) - Political communication analyst Hendri Satrio believes that President Prabowo Subianto’s speech during the International Labour Day (May Day) commemoration in 2026 demonstrates an effort to maintain balance between the interests of workers and business owners. He stated that every presidential speech on Labour Day faces the same challenge, namely how to convey messages without appearing overly biased towards one group. “The focus is not only on workers, but business owners are also watching and listening to the key points in the speech delivered by the president,” Hendri said in Jakarta on Friday. “If it’s too biased towards workers, business owners might just ‘run away’ for a while. If it’s too biased towards business owners, the workers will get angry,” he added. Hendri assessed that in his speech, President Prabowo conveyed several points favouring workers, including those related to workers’ rights, attention to ride-hailing drivers, and the idea of providing housing for workers. Nevertheless, Hendri emphasised that the main challenge of every presidential speech does not end with the delivery of the message alone, but rather with policy follow-up. According to him, the realisation of every statement or directive from the president is what the public is most eagerly awaiting.