Now even ballet dancers are downing tools over Macron
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Version 0 of 1. Nationwide protests against proposed pension changes also express a more general distrust of the government It was, perhaps, the most unusual performance of Swan Lake. On Christmas Eve, 27 ballerinas from the Paris Opéra took to the steps of the Opéra Garnier to protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform plans. They were part of a nationwide series of strikes, the largest since the 1980s, which has now entered its fourth week. Hundreds of trains have been cancelled, parts of the Paris metro shut down, schools closed, docks brought to a standstill, oil refineries blockaded and power supplies cut. And the dancers from the Paris Opéra have downed tools too or, rather, hung up their shoes. The French pension system is both complex and relatively generous. Few object to simplifying the system or creating a universal pension scheme. There is widespread resentment at Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age and cut payments. France has one of the lowest rates of poverty among the elderly and life expectancy after retirement is five years longer than the OECD average. Hence the mass support for the strikes. More than a million took to the streets on the first day of demonstrations called by the unions earlier this month. And, despite the disruption to everyday life, the strikers retain public sympathy. While pension reform is the immediate cause, the protests also express a more widespread distrust of Macron’s government, the same kind of distrust that has fuelled the gilets jaunes protests for more than a year. There has been much talk recently of a global wave of protest from Hong Kong to Lebanon to Chile. There has, though, been curiously little reporting in this country of the French protests. Mass agitation on our doorstep is worthy of our attention, too. • Kenan Malik is an Observer columnist |