Traveling to Alsace on Wednesday April 19, Emmanuel Macron faced the anger of protesters opposed to pension reform. Heckled, the head of state responded to the invectives not without throwing spades.
His return was eventful. After three months of discretion during the social and political crisis around the pension reform, Emmanuel Macron decided to return to the field with the French on Wednesday April 19. And it was in Alsace that the President of the Republic went, a region rather favorable to the presidential majority and a choice a priori judicious to avoid him from suffering too strong criticism, but the boos and invectives marked, and even punctuated the visit. Not enough to dissuade Emmanuel Macron, however, and the politician assured it himself: “I’m not going not to go into contact because people are not happy.”
The President of the Republic, however, dodged the gathering of several dozen demonstrators who were waiting for him near a factory in Muttersholtz, his first stop. It was only in Sélestat, the second town that he honored with his presence, that Emmanuel Macron mingled with the crowd and faced the anger of the French for long minutes. A way to prove its desire to reconnect with citizens despite the protest movement which has fractured the bond of trust between the people and the executive. But it is clear that the Head of State did not have a pleasant time: the boos and songs calling for the resignation but also the arrests of the demonstrators at the address of Emmanuel Macron were numerous and sometimes virulent .
If the demonstrators opposed to the pension reform did not fail to make their anger and their reproaches heard at Emmanuel Macron, the head of state was not content to take the criticism. Rediscovering the provocative tone that we have already known him, the President of the Republic split a small sentence with regard to the opponents: “It is not the pans that will move the country forward”. An obvious reference to the pan concerts through which the demonstrators have expressed their dissatisfaction since Emmanuel Macron’s speech on April 17. In Alsace, kitchen utensils were once again out in the hands of protesters in front of the Mathis wood factory in Muttersholtz.
Impossible for Emmanuel Macron to “remain deaf” to the anger expressed by the French about the pension reform. He himself acknowledged in his speech on April 17, but that does not mean that the head of state is ready to discuss with everyone. Proof of this is his refusal to march in front of the demonstrations during his first stop in Alsace. Asked about the issue, Emmanuel Macron assumed this decision: “I don’t think they’re trying to talk, they’re trying to make noise. I’m ready to hear opposition, but you can only convince people who listen to you “. And to add not without stirring up anger: “If they don’t listen to you, you have to let them not listen for a while and then, after, they move on”.
In the last minutes of his trip, Emmanuel Macron however reopened the door to a dialogue with all the opposition, even the most refractory, but never without considering responding to the demands concerning the withdrawal of the reform: “Angry people, I respect. (…) I want them to recommit to dialogue. We can still convince people about pensions.”
After a dodging that was not to the taste of the activists and questioned the executive’s desire to reconnect with the citizens, Emmanuel Macron finally lent himself to the walkabout in Sélestat and twice: during his arrival and before leaving. But this quarter of an hour spent in a human tide was an almost uninterrupted succession of arrests, sometimes of invectives and boos. The slogans “Macron resign!” and the chant “We are here” continued to be sung by the demonstrators and louder and louder, as well as the boos.
Certain interventions by demonstrators drew particular attention. From the first minutes of Emmanuel Macron in front of the demonstrators, a man launched: “We don’t want your retirement, what don’t you understand in that!” Another extended his hand to the Head of State to better take him to task and vilify him, even warning him of the possible consequences of the social movement: “You have corrupt ministers! You will soon fall!”.
Other reactions were more polite but no less critical of the reform and of Emmanuel Macron. Who exchanged a long time with a trade unionist from Unsa who did not hide his opinion on the “deleterious” policy of the Head of State asked him “to withdraw this reform which is unjust and brutal and to send signs of appeasement”. In response, the President of the Republic unfolded the same arguments as his ministers on the need for reform without convincing the demonstrator. “I don’t have the feeling of having been heard. I had the feeling that he was giving elements of language, the same ones that we could hear during different interviews from him,” he said. -she regretted at the microphone of BFMTV.
