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| France Is Furious | France Is Furious |
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| 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. |
| Quite simply, it’s now going to be harder for Mr. Macron to govern. Without a majority in the National Assembly, his Renaissance party has relied heavily on support from the right-wing Republicans since the legislative elections last summer. But 19 Republican deputies backed the motion of no confidence. After such an unmistakable act of defiance, it’s difficult to imagine the party teaming up with the Élysée Palace on major changes in the immediate future. | |
| More important, the president has lost the trust of the French public, exhausting whatever good will remained after his re-election by ignoring — once again — that millions voted for him out of a desire to prevent his far-right opponent from taking power. Thanks to his pension overhaul, Mr. Macron’s approval ratings have fallen below 30 percent. Calls to clean up trash on the streets of the capital may fire up the president’s wealthy urban base, but they’ve fallen on deaf ears for most of the country, which has little in common with moneyed Parisians. |