He cry of indignation and rage of hundreds of thousands of people has been reverberating for almost four months through the streets of the main cities of France. In Paris, Nantes and Rennes, citizens take to the streets week after week to protest against the controversial pension reform that the French president, Emmanuel Macronapproved by decreed in mid-March despite the broad rejection of the population, the unions and the opposition.
This Thursday, the union forces called the twelfth day of mobilizations and work stoppages. The influx to these latest demonstrations has been less than in the previous ones, although their symbolic load is considerable: this Friday, the Constitutional Council -equivalent to the Spanish Constitutional Court- will say if it considers that Macron’s star law that increases the legal age of retirement from 62 to 64 years conforms or not to the Magna Carta. The members that make up this body, popularly known as the wisethey could accept the standard in its entirety, modify some articles, reject it completely and even authorize a referendum.
Whatever the verdict, both the French Democratic Labor Conference (CFDTthe first union in the country) and the General Confederation of Labor (CGTthe second) have already warned that the mobilization will continue until the reform is withdrawn. In the same way, the president of the republic seems determined to go ahead with his project, even if it costs him popularity (in all-time lows, according to polls) and even puts his mandate at risk. Trust in that the French end up resigning themselves and the movement ends up wearing out.
Twelfth day of national strike and protest in France against the pension reform.
“I accept the unpopularity,” he said. And the truth is that the slogans carried by the protesters from all over France go directly against Emmanuel Macron, who is branded, among other things, as a “hypocrite” and “authoritarian” for having approved the law without the full support of the deputies through of article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows the suppression of parliamentary debate.
Macron does not mind being an uncomfortable leader at home. In fact, he widely beat the far-right Marine Le Pen in the 2022 elections, being the most hated president in the fifth republic. The problem is that it doesn’t seem to affect him to be an uncomfortable leader outside the country either.
[Macron defiende que la UE debe ser la tercera superpotencia mundial frente a EEUU y China]
Uncomfortable inside… and outside
In recent days, the French president has opened a breach within the European Union with statements offered to Political and to the French medium The echoes following his visit to China last week. In them, Macron distanced himself from the United States’ policy towards China and Taiwan, and asked Europe not to be “caught up in crises that are not ours.”
Likewise, he endorsed the thesis that the European Union must not allow itself to be dragged into the politics of Joe Biden or become “vassal” from Washington, but instead has to develop its own “strategic autonomy” with the aim of becoming the third world superpower, as Juan Sanhermelando explained in this newspaper.
French President Macron on a state visit to China.
Macron’s words have caused significant anger in Washington and also in some European capitals. Even the former president of the United States, donald trumphas accused the French leader, of whom he says he is a “very good friend”, of “pleasing” the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, and of “kiss her ass”as he stated in an interview with Fox News.
In the same line, Mike Gallagherthe Republican Chairman of the US House of Representatives Chinese Communist Party Select Committee, went so far as to describe “shameful” the comments. Also Norbert Röttgen, a deputy for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and former head of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, tweeted that Macron had “succeeded in turning his trip to China into a public relations coup for Xi and a foreign policy disaster for Europe.” “.
[Macron, abucheado en La Haya por su reforma de las pensiones: “¡Presidente de la hipocresía!”]
Not content with raising tempers once, on his recent state visit to The Netherlands sang the je ne regrette rien (I do not regret anything). He defended his ideal of a Europe sovereignty, which reduces dependence on other powers and can “choose its own destiny”. “Must [los europeos] try to be the decision makers rather than the rule followers” and “reduce dependency to reinforce our identity and sovereignty,” he said.
During the speech he gave at the Nexus Institute in The Hague, a group of activists tried to boycott his speech. They rebuked him with proclamations about the climate and, above all, against the pension reform in France. And it is that, apparently, the cry of indignation and anger of the French also crosses borders.
