Macron’s favorite ‘brasserie’ burns down on another day of protests against his pension reform

On the eleventh day of protests in France over the pension reform that Emmanuel Macron intends to carry out, Parisians have taken to the streets and have stormed and burned ‘La Rotonde’, the president’s favorite ‘brasserie’which is located on the left bank of the Seine, on the boulevard de Montparnasse.

A group of violent demonstrators threw bottles and paint at the Police and, in that moment of chaos, they burned the awning of the premises. It is a well-known establishment in France and symbolic for Macron, because there he celebrated the victory he obtained in the first round of the 2017 presidential elections, the first he won.

That dinner was highly criticized by some sectors of French society because they thought the celebration was “disproportionate” due to the price of the menu. Even the then mayor of Lyon and faithful follower of Macron, Gérard Collomb, justified the celebration by posting the restaurant’s menu on Twitter to show that the prices were on the average of those of a large brasserie Parisian and weren’t rowdy. However, since then the place has been the target of more altercations, as it happened in the “yellow vest” protests in 2018 and 2019.

[“Incendiarán Francia a sangre y fuego”: Macron despliega 13.000 policías en la 10ª jornada de huelga]

The pension reform that Macron intends to promote has become the most ambitious project of his second term. The president wants to raise the retirement age from the current 62 to 64, because he is convinced that this is the only way to keep the system sustainable. However, he has met with the direct rejection of the population. Protests against this initiative began in mid-January and, three months later, they continue.

Other incidents have also been recorded in the French capital, such as burning cars, destroying street furniture and attacks on bank branches, which demonstrates the growing level of tension in the mobilizations.

Validation of the reform

Hundreds of thousands of French have returned this Holy Thursday to the streets to repudiate the pension reform in the prelude to the final decision of the Constitutional Council – the body for interpretation of the Magna Carta, which on April 14 must validate or not the law retirement reform. The unions wanted this day to be a new show of force after the failure of the meeting held the day before with the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne. However, the participation has been somewhat lower than in the previous day.

The French authorities assessed adherence to the Paris marchthe main one in the country, in 57,000 people, a figure raised to 400,000 by the unions. The trend, however, is slightly downward, since the unions themselves had estimated the participants in the last Parisian mobilization last week at 450,000.

“Whatever happens, the mobilization will continue as long as the reform is not withdrawn,” said the new leader of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT, the second central in the country), Sophie Binetat the beginning of the demonstration organized in Paris.

In a parallel line, the general secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT, first trade union), laurent bergerstressed that “this movement continues to have the support of the population” and that “the rejection of this reform continues to be just as strong.”

[La crisis de Francia en seis mitos y un número: de la popularidad de Macron al artículo 49.3]

The protesters agreed this Holy Thursday that the only way out of this crisis is the withdrawal of the reform that increases the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64, something in which the Government has been inflexible.

For the Executive, the measure is essential to guarantee the financial balance of the pension system. “There is no alternative, they must back down, we are right, they are wrong, we are in the majority”stated in statements to efe at the Paris demonstration Thomas Vaucouleur, a member of the agricultural section of the CGT union.

For this trade unionist, “there is a strong resentment of the population” against the Government, which is worsening with the police response to the demonstrations, and Macron “lives in the parallel reality of capitalism and big business.”

“At least I think I’m going to die before my retirement”lamented Violette, a 25-year-old student who also criticized the deafness of the Government to popular discontent.

Macron popularity

The mobilizations this Thursday also resulted in strikes in sectors such as education and public transport, such as trains and public transport, although not as intense as on previous occasions.

Without having completed a year of the last presidential elections, this political crisis is translating into a drop in Macron’s popularitythat if he now faced the far-right Marine Le Pen in a hypothetical presidential election, he would lose by a wide margin, according to the polls.

A barometer published this Thursday by the newspaper The echoes reveals that only a quarter of the French say they trust him, although still far from the 13% obtained by the socialist François Hollande.