Violent protests in France against an unpopular pension reform forced the postponement of a visit by King Charles III at the request of Liberal President Emmanuel Macron, who yesterday rejected a union call to “pause” his project.
“We would not be serious and would err on the side of common sense if we proposed to the king and queen consort [Camilla] come for a state visit in the midst of the demonstrations,” Macron said at a press conference in Brussels, at the end of a European summit.
After a morning conversation between the two heads of state, London and Paris made the decision to postpone the visit, which was scheduled from Sunday to Wednesday and which, according to Macron, could take place “at the beginning of summer”, when the situation calm down.
Buckingham Palace has already announced that the royal couple “looks forward with great interest to the opportunity to visit France as soon as dates can be found.” Carlos III maintained, however, the stage in Germany of what is his first trip as king.
The call by the unions for new protests on Tuesday against the pension reform caused the cancellation of this visit, especially when the mobilization on Thursday left images of violence and disturbances throughout the country.
Radical protesters even set fire to the access to the Bordeaux city hall, in the southwest of the country, a city that Carlos III and Camilla were to visit on Tuesday. A tribute at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and a dinner at the Palace of Versailles completed the agenda.
The opposition reacted quickly to the announcement. The rightist Éric Ciotti criticized that the government “is not capable of guaranteeing the security of a head of state” and the leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon celebrated that “popular censorship” ended with “the kings’ dinner in Versailles”.
“Put on pause.” Macron has faced strong opposition since January to his plan to delay the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and to bring forward to 2027 the requirement to contribute 43 years, instead of 42, to collect a full pension.
After weeks of peaceful and massive demonstrations since January, the protests intensified on March 16, when the president announced his decision to adopt his reform by decree, fearing he would lose the vote in Parliament.
Since then, hundreds of people, mostly young people, have walked the streets of Paris and other cities at night, burning garbage containers in their path, in defiance of a police officer under fire for accusations of violence.
An interview by Macron on Wednesday, in which he said he “assumed” the “unpopularity” of his reform and charged against the opposition, the unions and the “seditious” radical protesters, just heated up the mood.
A total of 457 people were arrested and 441 police officers and gendarmes were injured on Thursday, in protests marked by “scenes of chaos” in Rennes, water cannons in Lille and Toulouse and riots in Paris, among others. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced that Justice had opened eleven investigations for alleged police violence against protesters.
For his part, Macron condemned the violence on Thursday. “I have seen scenes where many of our police and gendarmes have been subjected to totally disproportionate attacks by extremely violent and equipped militants,” he said. “In a democracy, violence is not a right,” he added, aware that new demonstrations “of this type” are being prepared in the coming days.
To avoid a “drama” and get out of the social crisis, the leader of the CFDT -the main union confederation-, Laurent Berger, proposed on RTL radio to Macron “a time of listening, dialogue and putting the reform on hold of pensions”. Berger called for “six months to examine how we can get things back on track,” citing the employment of older workers, “burnout on the job” or “end-of-career accommodations.”
France “cannot stop”. However, the 45-year-old president refused to “pause” his reform, which must follow “its democratic path”, but it was made “available” to the unions once the Constitutional Council ruled on its validity.
“The country cannot stop, we keep moving forward,” stressed the liberal president. The government defends that the reform, which it wants to apply “by the end of the year”, seeks to avoid a future deficit in the pension fund.
But Macron is under pressure. Analysts consider that he is at stake to apply the rest of his reformist program until 2027 and 70% of the French consider the government responsible for the violence, according to a poll on Thursday by Odoxa.
Waiting for a way out of the social conflict, the opposition and the unions maintain their tussle. This Friday and the weekend there will be canceled trains and flights again, while the strike in refineries and waste collection in Paris continues.
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