More than two months after a bitter battle that has rocked the nation, opponents of Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age have shown no sign of abating as protester numbers rebounded after falling in recent weeks.
The rallies marked the ninth day of nationwide strikes and protests and the first since Macron ordered his prime minister to use special executive powers to bypass parliament, turning an already smoldering dispute into a political and institutional crisis.
Several hundred thousand demonstrators demonstrated in the French capital from the symbolic Bastille protest center. Many held placards with a montage of Macron in full regalia in the manner of the “Sun King” Louis XIV, accompanied by the slogan “Méprisant de la République” (Contempt for the Republic).
“We’re fed up with a president who thinks he’s Louis XIV, who doesn’t listen, who thinks he’s the only one who knows what’s good for this country,” said Michel Doneddu, a 72-year-old retiree from Paris suburbs.
He held up a placard that read, “Jupiter, humans will bring you back to earth,” a nod to a nickname often used by critics of Macron’s haughty, arrogant ways.
“We’ve had our share of useless presidents, but at least in the past they knew when to listen and when to back down,” he added. “But Macron, he’s on another planet.”
Élisabeth Borne’s use of Article 49.3 of the French constitution to force Macron’s pension reform without a vote by parliament has incensed the president’s opponents. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24
The demonstration included many first-time protesters, such as 32-year-old student Lou, who said she was “not so much for pension reform as because our democracy is at stake.”
Clashes and fires broke out on the way to the Opéra Garnier in the heart of Paris, reflecting the violence that has gripped the country since the government used Article 49.3 of the constitution to force Macron’s reform through Parliament.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said more than 120 police officers were injured in clashes across France on Thursday alone, amid unrest in several Brittany towns and protesters setting fire to the porch of Bordeaux town hall.
“Our democracy is broken”
The latest round of protests came a day after Macron broke his silence on the bitter pension dispute. He said he was willing to accept unpopularity because the bill was “necessary” and “in the general interest of the country.”
Macron struck a defiant tone, saying he had “no regrets” except one: acknowledging that his government had failed to convince the public of the need for reform following the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and French households are being plagued by runaway inflation.
To say the government failed to convince the French is an understatement. Polls have consistently shown that more than two-thirds of the country oppose pension reform. A large majority of French people have also expressed their support for strikes that have disrupted schools, public transport and garbage collection and buried the streets of Paris – the world’s most visited city – in stinking heaps of rubbish.
Mounds of rubbish have accumulated all over the French capital, sometimes reminiscent of the barricades of past revolutions. © Benoît Tessier, Portal
Macron’s own approval rating has taken a hit, falling to just 28 percent last week, the lowest level since the Yellow Vests crisis, according to an Ifop poll last week. The poll was conducted before the President further inflamed his critics by ordering his Prime Minister to trigger Article 49.3.
While Borne’s government narrowly escaped a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly on Monday, polls suggest the French were hoping for a very different outcome. According to an Elabe poll, two out of three voters supported the no-confidence motion, including, surprisingly, a slim majority (51%) of people who supported Macron in last year’s presidential election.
At Thursday’s Paris rally, many said they voted for Macron less than 12 months ago, but stressed they did so to keep the far right out of power – not to support his promised pension reform.
“Our democracy is broken, it forces us to choose the lesser evil,” said 21-year-old student Maude. “And even if Parliament and the country are against it, the government can still do what it wants.”
‘death sentence’
Borne’s minority government is hardly the first to use Article 49.3, which has been triggered 100 times since 1962. Rarely, however, has a reform of this magnitude been pushed through and so vehemently rejected by the public.
At the heart of the pensions overhaul is a controversial plan to raise the country’s minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 and tighten requirements for a full pension, which the government says is needed to balance the books amid changing demographics.
But unions say the proposed measures are deeply unfair and will primarily affect low-skilled workers who start their careers early and have physically demanding jobs, and women with interrupted careers.
The perceived injustice of Macron’s pension reform has hit a sore point in a country that has the word “égalité” (equality) enshrined in its motto. Talk of his injustice was a major reason behind the mass protests that drew millions of people to the streets in towns and villages across the country and well beyond the ranks of the left.
>> “Not just about pensions”: French demonstrators see Macron’s reform as a threat to social justice
“Raising the retirement age is a death sentence for us,” said Julien, a 40-year-old garbage collector who was demonstrating with dozens of striking colleagues in Paris.
“I’ve been doing this job for 10 years and that’s more than enough to exhaust anyone,” he said. “Some of my colleagues have died during Covid. We were celebrated then, and now we are thanked like this!”
Garbage collectors and sewage workers gather at Place de la Bastille in Paris to kick off Thursday’s rally. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24
Like Julien, rail worker Ragnar said that Macron’s previous government had already made it harder for workers to retire early because of the particularly strenuous nature of their jobs, by removing certain criteria of “pénibilité” (arduousness) such as lifting heavy loads and working with chemical substances .
“We must step up our strikes and protests, blockade the country, ensure that not a single drop of petrol remains at the gas station. This is the only way the government can be stopped,” said the 23-year-old from the SUD union.
The French President has achieved at least one thing, his colleague Nathalie joked: “He has outraged every single union – that’s quite an achievement!”
“The fact that every single French union is opposed to the reform should be food for thought,” added 49-year-old Audrey, financial controller and member of the white-collar union CGC. “Our union is all about dialogue, but the government has no interest in speaking to us.”
“The struggle in Parliament may be over – but we’re not done yet”
Ahead of Thursday’s nationwide rallies, union members stepped up their campaign of barrages and disruptions, briefly blocking train stations, bus depots and motorways, including the main road leading to Charles-de-Gaulle Airport near Paris, France’s largest transport hub. where fuel stocks had fallen “critically low” due to ongoing strikes at oil refineries across the country.
Targeted blackouts left the town hall of Paris’ 5th arrondissement (district) — led by a centre-right mayor who supports the reform — without power for several hours, while student unions said more than 400 high schools across the country were temporarily out of power protesting students blocked.
In a sign of how widespread the protest movement has become, even the entrance to the Panthéon-Assas University in Paris, France’s best-known law school and hardly a hotbed of radical politics, has been barricaded.
“The anger is greater than ever,” said Ian Brossat, a deputy mayor of Paris who attended Thursday’s rally, wrapped in the tricolor sash normally worn by elected officials at public events.
“Animosity towards an unjust reform has now been complemented by outrage at the use of an anti-democratic tool,” he said, dismissing Macron’s recent promise of a “change of method”.
“We have seen what the method is: it means bypassing the National Assembly and governing from the Élysée Palace,” Brossat added. “He’s stuck in the role of an absolute monarch cut off from reality.”
A few steps away, retired teacher Sylvie Bredillet also dismissed Macron’s claims that the government had failed to explain the motives behind his pension reform.
“He says his government has failed to get the message across, but we heard it loud and clear: He wants to force two more years of work on essential workers earning their pensions instead of taxing the rich,” she said .
“Macron says he stands his ground – so do we,” her partner Philippe added, holding a banner that read “Gaulois réfractaire” (Gaul who refuses to change, a phrase Macron controversially used to describe the commenting on French resistance to reform) and sporting a matching moustache.
“Our parents fought for us to live better and enjoy a deserved pension, now we stand in solidarity with younger generations,” said Sylvie Bredillet, 67, who attended Thursday’s rally in Paris. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24
Both pledged to keep protesting until the reform is withdrawn. So did 40-year-old Emilie Dalle, a school principal from a Paris suburb, who said she was even more motivated to march after the president’s “authoritarian” move.
“The struggle in Parliament may be over, but we’re not done yet,” she said. “Macron shied away from democracy because he feared he would lose a vote. Now we have to take matters into our own hands.”