The French President, Emmanuel Macrongrants this Wednesday a television interview in full hardening of the protests against his unpopular pension reformwhich it has no intention of repealing after imposing it by decree.
The expected interview of the liberal president, starting at 1:00 p.m. (12:00 p.m. GMT) on the channels TF1 and French 2arrives in a very tense social context with a wave of spontaneous protests, marked by violence, for almost a week.
Although his goal is to “calm down” the situation, Macron has already warned that the “crowd” and the “riots” have no “legitimacy” about the representatives of the people, he told his deputies on Tuesday, according to a participant in the meeting.
“The government is consciously creating all the conditions for a social outbreakas if he was looking for it, ”said the far-right leader Marine LePenin an interview with the AFP.
Two out of three Frenchaccording to the polls, and all the unions oppose the delay of the retirement age from 62 to 64 years by 2030 and the advancement to 2027 of the requirement to contribute 43 years, and not 42, to collect a full pension.
But Macron and his prime minister Elisabeth Borne They adopted the reform by decree on Thursday, as they feared they would not reach the necessary majority in the National Assembly (lower house), even with the support of the right-wing opposition Republicans.
This decision set the streets on fire. Since that day, Paris and other cities register every night undeclared protestsin which protesters, mostly young, burn containers and other items in their fight with the police.
On Tuesday night, the Place de la République in Paris was the scene of the launch of projectiles and of tear gas among hundreds of people and the security forces. There were 46 detainees. Between Thursday and Monday, they were 855 in France.
But the police are in the crosshairs. The left-wing opposition, lawyers’ unions, magistrates, the Human Rights League and even the ombudsman expressed concern about his actions against the protesters.
What exit?
Beyond the reform, Emmanuel Macron risks being able to apply the program of his second term which runs until 2027, so your interview will be very soon to learn his intentions and see if he admits to any mistakes, as observers expect.
“He social and political damage because of his obstinacy in imposing a pension reform (…) it is immense. It would be best for him to admit his mistake, but his arrogance makes it unlikely. So, what to say?”, reads an editorial in the left-wing newspaper Liberation.
The 45-year-old president already rejected in Tuesday’s meetings with his allies remodeling his government, dissolving the Assembly or submitting the reform to a referendum, as requested by the opposition, and focused on the coming months.
Macron would have asked like this “proposals” in the coming weeks about a change in the method of governing, something that he had already promised after his re-election in April thanks to the sanitary cordon against his rival Le Pen, and about an “agenda”.
The reaction will be measured over the entire Thursdaywhen the unions, which are beginning to lose weight in the protests after leading them, called a ninth day of actions in the wake of the massive and peaceful ones of recent months.
After managing to organize the largest protest against a social reform in three decades, with between 1.28 and 3.5 million demonstrators on March 7, the unions toughened their actions with extendable strikes in key sectors.
Stocks diversified in recent days with the punctual cut off access to large citieslike this Wednesday in Marseille, blockade of universities and high schoolsinvasion of train stations, accumulated garbage in Paris etc
The blockades of the shipment of fuel and refineries began to take their toll on 12% of gas stations in France, and the authorities decided to force striking workers to resume their work, sometimes creating moments of tension as in the Fos- plant. sur-mer (southeast).
(With information from AFP)
Keep reading:
What will happen in France after Macron’s decree to impose his pension reform: massive protests and motions of censure
Four years after the yellow vests, popular hatred of Macron has flared up in France for the pension reform
The Macron government passed the motions of censure in Parliament for the pension reform in France
Source-www.infobae.com