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Reuters
Reuters
Business
By Elizabeth Pineau

Angry crowd heckles France's Macron over pensions legislation

French President Emmanuel Macron talks to a person opposed to the pension reform, in Selestat, eastern France, April 19, 2023. Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS

Protesters greeted French President Emmanuel Macron with boos and calls for him to resign in his first public appearance since he signed into law an unpopular rise in the retirement age.

Outside a factory he was visiting in the eastern Alsace region, Macron was faced with hostile banners and banging on pots. Unionised workers briefly cut electrical power inside the factory.

French President Emmanuel Macron talks to a person opposed to the pension reform, in Selestat, eastern France, April 19, 2023. Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS

Then, as he walked through a crowd in a nearby village, many shouted "Macron, resign!" and one man told him: "We don't want this pension (reform), what don't you get?"

Another man told him he was leading a corrupt government and added: "You'll fall soon, just wait and see."

There were also some cheers - one man told Macron to "hang in there," a woman thanked him for his work and others asked for selfies.

French President Emmanuel Macron greets people during a visit in Selestat, eastern France, April 19, 2023. Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS

But even in an area that is pro-Macron and voted slightly more for him than the national average in the 2022 presidential election, the reception was mostly hostile.

Macron signed into law at the weekend a rise in the retirement age which means citizens must work two years longer, to 64, before receiving their state pension.

That was after three months of protests that mobilised huge crowds and at times turned violent. Opinion polls show a vast majority of voters oppose the reform.

Protesters, wearing CFDT labour union vests, attend a demonstration against pension law before the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron in Muttersholtz, Eastern France, April 19, 2023.The slogan reads "Emmanuel, come and work a little at night to see". REUTERS/Elizabeth Pineau

In the village of Selestat, the centrist president said he was fine with people expressing their discontent "but the country must move forward".

Earlier during the factory visit, Macron shrugged off the display of discontent, saying: "Pans won't help France move forward".

He added that it was not possible for a society to listen only to those who "make the most noise" as he sought to highlight positive aspects of France's labour legalisation.

Macron and his government say they want to move on and work on other measures to do with working conditions, law and order, education and health issues.

But his Selestat outing made clear many were not ready to move on. And they were not the only ones.

In Paris, a free climber known as the "French Spiderman" scaled a 38-storey skyscraper to demonstrate his opposition to the pension law.

"I'm here to tell Emmanuel Macron to come back down to earth ... by climbing with no safety net," Alain Robert said.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau in Selestat, Tassilo Hummel and Ingrid Melander in Paris; editing by Angus MacSwan and Mark Heinrich)

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