In OP DES, AP or FD will command pitch to maintain airspeed. Thrust changes will only affect rate, if in AP or if you follow the FD.
But let me explain you the concept of airbus fbw. The system is a flight path stable loop system. It will tend to maintain a straight path when the stick is released to neutral (it is springloaded to neutral and its feel is totally independent of speed or any other variable other than the stick deflection angle itself). It is not speed stable as a conventional system. In your 717 you need speed related feel in the stick because you need to trim off stick forces in order to have the airplane tend to fly in the phugoid you desire. When pushing or pulling it, you feel the aerodynamic effect that your input is likely going to have in the airplane. It is not the movement inof the yoke but the force on it which tells you if you will overstress the airframe. At low speeds you will instinctively push or pull to obtain a given pitch rate, at higher speeds you will modulate stick forces to obtain a g load. Stick forces help you to modulate your inputs.
In the airbus you don't need such forces as the system, when the stick is released, will move surfaces on its own to maintain flight path. To change flight path you will push or pull e stick. At low speeds you will move it more or less to achieve a pitch rate. At higher speeds you will move it more or less to achieve a g load. Same as in conventional airplanes. That is why it is very natural to fly. The control law does command g load blended with pitch rate at low speeds and pure g load at higher speeds. Once you achieve desired flight path you just release gently the stick and then you have trimmed it. Releasing the stick equates to trimming. No need for artificial forces. Even with a jammed stabiliser the elevators will deal with it and the airplanestill has autotrim. You still fly with a loop system demanding g load (pure in this case as younwill be in alternate law).
Boeing's fbw is similar in the control law, which demands a blend of pitch rate and g load dependent on speed. But they added a trim speed induced pitch input such that the airplane will behave as speed stable. It still has trimming switches and artificial feel.
Don't resist airbus fbw. Reject wrong notions that many have about it, even many airbus pilots. The protections and the more or less authority they give or take are certainly stuff for debate, yes, but the way it flies is absolutely natural. It is not an AP nor a CWS. You fly the bloody thing, pitch and thrust, just like the 717s., only easier because you don't have to trim