Macron was received with boos in Alsace, after the approval of the pension reform

First modification: 04/19/2023 – 21:09Last modification: 04/19/2023 – 21:10

To the cry of “Macron resignation”, dozens of people in Alsace, in the northeast of France, received President Emmanuel Macron this Wednesday, April 19. All in his first trip around the country after several turbulent weeks in which the pension reform – which proposes increasing the retirement age from 62 to 64 – has occupied the nation’s media agenda.

In the town of Sélestat, the demonstrators were prepared to receive the president and remind him that they have not forgotten the fight to overthrow the pension reform.

“It is not only a question of economic policy, but a question of social policy. It is not only a question of the Government, it is a question that directly affects the people,” said one of the residents of the French municipality.

“We have made concessions. We will continue trying to improve working conditions (…) I do not ask people to make the difficult decisions for me,” Macron responded to the booing.

But the truth is that, despite his arguments, in Alsace they have not received him with open arms. Before his arrival in the municipality of Muttersholtz, where he visited the Mathis company -specialized in wood construction- a group of about a hundred protesters, who played drums and chanted hostile messages, was dispersed by the Police.

“The saucepans will not move France forward… They are expressing their anger, but that will not stop me from continuing to travel,” Macron told reporters.

In his recent trips around the country, the reception has been the same: booing and demands for his resignation due to the pension reform.

Power cuts in factories due to Macron’s visit

At the Mathis factory, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the second largest union in the country, claimed a power outage that did not affect citizens.

“We had announced it, the energy companies will be everywhere and everything will remain in the dark for the president,” Fabrice Coudour, the union’s federal secretary, told AFP.

Emmanuel Fernandes, deputy of the political party France Unsubmissive, for the Lower Rhine region, received the president with a gag that read “article 49.3”, the constitutional weapon used to approve the text without a vote in the French Congress.

“I represent this majority France that rejects this reform and the increasingly brutal methods of the government,” said Fernandes.

“The saucepans are the voice of the people. In the streets and in the windows,” tweeted the leader of France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Emmanuel Macron has remained in the background at the Élysée during the three months of crisis and has only left Paris to visit the Charente and the vicinity of Lake Serre-Ponçon, in the Alps.

Following his televised speech last Monday, April 17, rallies and pickets had also been organized throughout the country, a sign that the protests continue despite the validation of the reform by the Constitutional Council and its promulgation following the same.

Also on a personal trip by Macron, on Tuesday, to Saint-Denis, near Paris, he was greeted by around 300 protesters.

“It is important that we talk about what is changing for the better in our country,” said the government spokesman, Olivier Véran, this Wednesday, during his report to the Council of Ministers.

Among the priority projects for the Executive at this time are a “new pact for active life” that it will negotiate with the social partners, and “advances” in public services such as education and health.

On Thursday, April 20, the Head of State will make another trip to the Hérault region, dedicated to schools. In particular, he will visit the teachers, students and parents of the Louise-Michel de Ganges school. According to several government sources, this time he could make announcements about teachers’ salaries.

“Acceleration” seems to be the key word with which the nation’s president wants citizens to associate his mandate: acceleration at work, in migration or in the fight against fraud.

But, for now, public opinion is not favorable. This is perhaps the most remarkable display of public rejection of the liberal politician since he was slapped in the face by a 28-year-old jobless man in 2021 during a visit to a small town in southeastern France.

Article adapted from its French version