This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/24/opinion/international-world/france-protests-pensions-macron.html
The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 4 | Version 5 |
|---|---|
| France Is Furious | France Is Furious |
| (about 16 hours later) | |
| FOS-SUR-MER, France — “This government just does not listen to us,” said Renald, a 50-year-old electrical mechanic at the Port of Marseille, as his co-workers assembled a barricade this week on the route leading to a fuel depot. “There’s a deep anger here.” | FOS-SUR-MER, France — “This government just does not listen to us,” said Renald, a 50-year-old electrical mechanic at the Port of Marseille, as his co-workers assembled a barricade this week on the route leading to a fuel depot. “There’s a deep anger here.” |
| That anger is unlikely to have been assuaged by President Emmanuel Macron’s televised interview on Wednesday. Breaking his near silence on the pension overhaul that has plunged France into strikes and protests, he defended the legislation as an economic necessity. A no-confidence vote that he narrowly survived in the National Assembly on Monday has clearly done little to instill penitence. Against the people — a majority of whom oppose the overhaul, which would raise the retirement age by two years, to 64 — the president is doubling down. | That anger is unlikely to have been assuaged by President Emmanuel Macron’s televised interview on Wednesday. Breaking his near silence on the pension overhaul that has plunged France into strikes and protests, he defended the legislation as an economic necessity. A no-confidence vote that he narrowly survived in the National Assembly on Monday has clearly done little to instill penitence. Against the people — a majority of whom oppose the overhaul, which would raise the retirement age by two years, to 64 — the president is doubling down. |
| Some still hope the bill might be stopped. After all, there is a precedent for the French government retracting an unpopular law in the face of mass protests, as occurred in 2006. And the overhaul still needs to survive examination from France’s Constitutional Council, the country’s highest court, which may ask questions about the dubious way it was carried out. | Some still hope the bill might be stopped. After all, there is a precedent for the French government retracting an unpopular law in the face of mass protests, as occurred in 2006. And the overhaul still needs to survive examination from France’s Constitutional Council, the country’s highest court, which may ask questions about the dubious way it was carried out. |
| Yet if the government gets its way, as seems probable, it will be a Pyrrhic victory. The damage of the past weeks can’t be undone. Mr. Macron has burned bridges with potential allies, poisoned relations with possible negotiating partners and rallied a majority of the French public against him. To judge from Thursday’s wave of strikes, which hit everything from oil refineries in Normandy to public buses in Nice, the discontent isn’t going anywhere. | Yet if the government gets its way, as seems probable, it will be a Pyrrhic victory. The damage of the past weeks can’t be undone. Mr. Macron has burned bridges with potential allies, poisoned relations with possible negotiating partners and rallied a majority of the French public against him. To judge from Thursday’s wave of strikes, which hit everything from oil refineries in Normandy to public buses in Nice, the discontent isn’t going anywhere. |