No matter where he goes, French President Emmanuel Macron can’t seem to avoid protests. On April 11th, the president was confronted by students accusing his administration of “violence and hypocrisy” during a speech in the Netherlands.
Reports agree that the demonstrators were venting their anger particularly over Mr. Macron’s pension reforms but also, more broadly, on the state of French democracy. The passage of the pension reform bill was possible thanks to Article 49.3 of the French constitution, which allows governments to pass laws without a National Assembly vote. Increasing the pension age from 62 to 64 years has plunged the country into chaos, as has been widely covered in The European Conservative.
During his speech in The Hague, Mr. Macron was met with a shout from the audience: “I think we lost something; where is French democracy?” Another asked, “Why did you bypass [the] French parliament,” while a sign was held up branding the Renaissance leader a “president of violence and hypocrisy.” These objections followed accusations made by a leading European human rights watchdog, stating French police used “excessive force” against those protesting the changes to pension laws. Around two dozen protesters are also understood to have chanted slogans outside the hall before Mr. Macron’s speech.
The president asked those interrupting if they would “allow me to answer,” but they were swiftly “bundled” out of the hall. He said:
[I am] not sure that the taxpayer in the Netherlands will accept that we will finance a long social model in France … So I have to do the job back home.
Mr. Macron was due to discuss European sovereignty at the Nexus Institute, though shifted slightly off-script following the disruption, declaring that “this is democracy, because it is a place where you can … have such incidents.”
Those protesting against the president also questioned his green credentials, with one insisting that “the [Paris] convention on the climate is not respected.” Perhaps determined to prove his dedication to the green cause, Mr. Macron said “We must stop signing, accepting free trade agreements with governments and people who do not respect the Paris [climate] agreement, otherwise we will submit to other constraints.”
The interruption by demonstrators featured prominently in the coverage by the French press of the ‘long’ speech.
