The French President, Emmanuel Macronaddressed the citizens this Wednesday in a television interview, the first he has granted since he approved by decree and without the vote of the National Assembly his controversial pension reform that has aroused social outrage and has led him to face two motions of censure.
During his speech, Macron has shown his respect for the demonstrations that the country’s main unions have been calling for months, but has assured that “it will not tolerate street violence” or the blockade of economic activity.
“We are a great nation and an old town that votes for those responsible and gives them legitimacy. The unions have theirs and when they show respect, it is a right protected by the Constitution,” Macron said in statements collected by the agency efe. “But when there are groups that use extreme violence to attack democratic representatives, when they use violence without rules because they are not happy, that is not democracy,” he added.
[Francia vive una nueva noche de protestas que se salda con un total de 100 detenidos en todo el país]
The President of the Republic, who the day before in a meeting with parliamentarians used the term “crowd” to refer to these demonstrations, he assured that he had used that word in that context and “in the situation that the world is experiencing, when one sees what happened in the United States, in the Capitol, in Brazil, when one sees the extreme violence in Germany or Netherlands”.
Despite the protests (a new general mobilization is scheduled for this Thursday), Macron has defended “the need for reform” and has assured that “he assumes unpopularity”. “Between long-term surveys and the general interest of the country, I choose the general interest of the country. And if that has consequences, I accept them,” he said.
In this sense, he has detailed that he hopes that the new norm, which increases the retirement age from 62 to 64 years, enter into force before the end of the year.
Faced with the ninth day of general mobilization called on Thursday by the unions against the pension reform, the president assured that “no excess will be tolerated”, while clarifying that the authorities will lift the blockades of companies when activity is prevented country’s economy.