Angry crowd heckles France’s Macron over pensions legislation
SMA NEWS – MUTTERSHOLTZ
Protesters greeted French President Emmanuel Macron with boos and calls for him to resign in his first public appearance since he signed into law an unpopular rise in the retirement age.
Outside a factory he was visiting in the eastern Alsace region, Macron was faced with hostile banners and banging on pots. Unionised workers briefly cut electrical power inside the factory.
Then, as he walked through a crowd in a nearby village, many shouted “Macron, resign!” and one man told him: “We don’t want this pension (reform), what don’t you get?”
Another man told him he was leading a corrupt government and added: “You’ll fall soon, just wait and see.”
There were also some cheers – one man told Macron to “hang in there,” a woman thanked him for his work and others asked for selfies.
But even in an area that is pro-Macron and voted slightly more for him than the national average in the 2022 presidential election, the reception was mostly hostile.
Macron signed into law at the weekend a rise in the retirement age which means citizens must work two years longer, to 64, before receiving their state pension.
That was after three months of protests that mobilised huge crowds and at times turned violent. Opinion polls show a vast majority of voters oppose the reform.
