March 23 () –
61 percent of the French believe that the public explanations of the president, Emmanuel Macron, about the controversial parliamentary process of the pension reform will not help to ease tensions and that, instead, they will worsen the social unrest that has led to protests practically constant during these last days.
Macron broke his silence on Tuesday after the accelerated approval of the reform in the National Assembly and the subsequent vote on two motions of no confidence against the Government. In a televised interview, he defended his plan as “necessary” and ruled out making any changes to his team, while condemning violent incidents at the protests.
However, only 11 percent of the population believes that, after these words, tensions will drop at street level, according to a survey by the firm Elabe for the BFMTV network. 71 percent of the 1,037 people surveyed believe that the president was not convincing in his arguments.
Macron acknowledged in the interview that the reform could take its toll on him in terms of popularity and, in fact, already almost two out of three people consider him a bad president and almost seven out of ten see him as arrogant and authoritarian, both adjectives used in recent years. days by leaders of the political opposition.
The reform, which raises, among other things, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, is not liked by 72 percent of the citizens interviewed, who see it as unfair. 63 believe that, contrary to what the Government says, it will not guarantee the survival of the public pension system and 56 percent believe that it is directly unnecessary.
The unions have called a new day of strikes for this Thursday to continue protesting against the legislative changes and the authorities estimate that, once again, hundreds of thousands of people will join one of the marches called in the main cities. According to the BFMTV poll, 65 percent of French people advocate continuing with these mobilizations.
