Emmanuel Macron was booed this Wednesday during a visit to the town of Sélestat, in Alsace. Approaching the town hall, there has been a lot of shouting and beeping directed at the French president. Some citizens have confronted him to reproach him for the pension reform, which provides for the delay of the legal retirement age by two years, from the current 62 to 64.
The French head of state knew that this trip and those he will make in the next few days are risky moments, but, according to his custom, he does not want to avoid direct contact with people because he likes to try to convince them with his arguments. He also did it during the yellow vest revolt.
Before going to Sélestat, Macron was greeted with a saucepan when he was going to visit a wooden construction company that has received orders for the 2024 Paris Olympics. There were shouts of "Get out!" and "Resignation!"
"I am not naive," Macron told the journalists accompanying him. "I have just promulgated a difficult and unpopular law, but I continue to seek contact (with the population). It is necessary for people to be able to express themselves freely but it is necessary for the country to move forward ". A little earlier, the president had warned that "pans do not advance", alluding to the protest this Wednesday and the one that took place in several cities, on Monday, after his televised message.
France is at an impasse. The unions refused to go to the Élysée yesterday to talk with Macron, who only met with the employers' representatives, and have called for a massive mobilization on the May Day party to show their rejection of the pension reform. In addition to dealing with social discontent, Macron is facing the problem of the lack of a majority in the National Assembly, which will make it very difficult to carry out any major initiative in the next four years. The president, in later statements while he was still in Sélestat, denied that his method is undemocratic, he recalled that the French voted for him last year and that there is no alternative majority.
Monday's televised address disappointed Macron's critics because he made no concessions on pensions and because his plans for the future are too vague. The president gave himself one hundred days to agree on a road map on issues such as labor policy or institutional reforms, a schedule that many consider unrealizable. The editorial of the newspaper Le Monde warned that, for Macron, "the room for maneuver is close to zero" and he risks living four years of paralysis.
