As unions prepared for another day of strikes and demonstrations against Macron’s pension reform on Thursday, protesters waving flags and chanting gathered in central Paris on Tuesday night, marking the sixth consecutive day of protests since the bill was passed.
At around 8:30 p.m. (local time), garbage cans were set on fire in the Place de la République in central Paris, and protesters set off fireworks. Fire trucks arrived to put out the fires and police dispersed protesters.
Some in Macron’s own camp have warned him not to continue business as usual amid violent protests and ongoing strikes that pose the most serious challenge to the centrist president’s authority since the “Yellow Vest” uprising four year ago.
“We are all weakened. The president, the government and the majority,” said Gilles Le Gendre, a senior member of parliament in Macron’s camp. Liberation newspaper. “It’s not because the law was passed that we can just do business.”
Another MP in Macron’s camp, Patrick Vignal, bluntly urged the president to suspend the pension reform bill, which will raise the retirement age by two years to 64, given the anger it has caused and the deep its unpopularity.
But Macron is not planning any reshuffling, snap elections or major changes of any sort and has ruled out repealing the pension law, a source who took part in meetings between Macron and key allies on Tuesday told Reuters.
He will instead try to use a TV interview on Wednesday to “calm things down” and plan reforms for the rest of his term, the source said.
NO U TURN
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt also made it clear in a speech to parliament that the government will not change course.
Although Borne said the government would try to better involve citizens and unions in the legislation in the future, she did not give details and both said they had spent as much time as possible on dialogue on the pension law.
“What we expect from the president of the republic is that he puts forward a three, six month calendar (of reforms),” Sacha Houlie, a member of parliament in Macron’s camp, told Reuters, saying that he hoped for proposals on, among other things, how to get companies to share more of their profits with employees.
Socialist Party leader Oliver Faure told the government it was “playing with fire”.
Other opposition MPs urged Macron to sack Borne, call early elections and hold a referendum on the pension law over widespread anger.
Meanwhile, the left-wing NUPES coalition and the far-right Rassemblement National have asked the Constitutional Council to assess whether the reform and the way it was passed violate the constitution.
WHAT NOW?
Polls show that a large majority of French people oppose the pension reform, as well as the government’s decision to push the bill through parliament without a vote.
“I think this was a denial of democracy. The government passed a law that was opposed by a majority of the French,” said scriptwriter Jean Regnaud.
Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said an investigation would be launched after footage went viral of a police officer beating a protester.
In another sign of growing anger, clashes broke out at an ExxonMobil oil depot in Fos-sur-Mer on Tuesday as the government took steps to get striking workers back to work. The site was doused in tear gas, while some protesters intermittently threw objects at police lines.