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Emmanuel Macron

French Workers Take The Streets As Pension Reform Becomes Law

April 16, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , ,
Spontaneous protests broke out in France on April 14, Friday, after the country’s Constitutional Council ratified the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64, the most controversial aspect of the pension reforms pushed by the Emmanuel Macron-led government. Macron signed the bill into law early on Saturday. Even though the Council struck down certain provisions of the bill, it also rejected the first version of the Referendum of Shared Initiative (RIP) on the implementation of the reforms. The proposal for the referendum was submitted by the MPs from the left-wing New Ecologic and Social Peoples Union’s (NUPES) coalition. The Constitutional Council will decide on a second RIP on May 3.

French Government Bypasses Parliamentary Vote

March 17, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
On March 16, the French government invoked the emergency provision Article 49.3 of the Constitution in the parliament and passed a controversial pension reform, bypassing the parliamentary vote. The decision announced by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to avoid voting on the pension reforms envisaged in the ‘law of amending financing of Social Security for 2023’, provoked ire from progressive legislators of the New Ecological and Social People’s Union (NUPES) coalition as well as large sections of civil society. Spontaneous protests have already broken out across the country condemning the forced approval of the bill.

French Workers Launch Indefinite Strike Against Pension Reforms

March 14, 2023 Brandon Jourdan, The Real News Network. , , ,
So far, after weeks of targeted strikes by workers opposing President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the national retirement age and reform the country’s beloved pension system, the French government has refused to change course. That is why unions across different industries raised the ante last week, launching an indefinite strike until workers’ demands are met. As Eric Challal of the Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques (SUD) Railway Union put it, “We have no choice, we must make Macron back down, make the employers back down. There is no lack of money in this society… Wages are too low, prices are exploding, the high cost of living, the threat of war… We have this opportunity to fight, all the workers together.”

Macron Says Security Guarantees For Russia Needed For Future Peace Deal

December 7, 2022 Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com. , , , , ,
French President Emmanuel Macron has said that Russia’s security concerns when it comes to NATO expansion need to be taken into account in any future peace talks and that the West needs to be prepared to give Moscow guarantees. “We need to prepare what we are ready to do, how we protect our allies and member states, and how to give guarantees to Russia the day it returns to the negotiating table,” the French leader said in an interview that aired Saturday. “One of the essential points we must address — as President Putin has always said — is the fear that NATO comes right up to its doors, and the deployment of weapons that could threaten Russia,” Macron added. Any future peace deal between Russia and Ukraine would require a guarantee that Kyiv will remain neutral and won’t join NATO.

Police Launch Violent Crackdown On Paris Refugee Camp

November 26, 2020 Will Morrow, WSWS. , , ,
French riot police went on a fascistic rampage Monday evening, brutally assaulting a peaceful tent camp of some 500 refugees at the Place de la République in central Paris. Police used teargas, kicked and beat migrants with batons, tipped refugees out of their tents and assaulted them on the ground. Journalists filming the crackdown were also assaulted. The riot officers threw dozens of confiscated tents into trucks and drove them away. After the square was cleared, a group of several hundred homeless refugees were forced to march north until they reached the outer suburbs around the city, pursued by police throwing teargas canisters as they went.

France: Protesters And Police Clash As Parliament Begins Debating Pension Reform Bill

February 18, 2020 Red Revolution. , , ,
Protesters took to the streets of Paris on Monday and clashed with riot police as the pension reform bill reached the French National Assembly for debate. Tensions between the demonstrators and riot police were visible, as the police tried to keep protesters at bay with batons, before arresting a few. Yellow Vests and unionist with flares could also be seen joining in with the rally. “Sixty per cent of the French are against this reform and against a certain number of measures which have been taken before. We are under attack from all sides on social justice, in a country that prides itself on its freedom, its fraternity,” said a protester. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced a two-year-extension of the working period necessary to earn a full pension in December, triggering the anger of workers and trade unions.

French Protest Day And Night Against Macron’s Banker Economy

January 23, 2020 Staff, Popular Resistance , , ,
The people of France continue to protest against President Macron's neoliberal policies and the cutting of French pensions. France has seen months of protests, starting with the Yellow Vests over a year ago and joined by the unions to become a general strike. Firefighters, teachers, railroad workers, electrical workers, lawyers, dancers -- across multiple professions people are in the streets sometimes speaking in front of guillotines or carrying Macron's head on a stick. They remind Macron what happened to King Louis XVI, call for revolution and say 'we can begin again.' Torchlit protests occurred in major cities across the country tonight with people dancing, singing, chanting and releasing Chinese lanterns in vivid displays against Macron's neoliberal policies for the wealthy.

In New Year’s Address, French President Macron Pledges To Impose Austerity Despite Mass Strike

January 7, 2020 Alex Lantier, Wsws.org , , ,
In a brief, perfunctory speech on New Year’s Eve, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to impose his pension cuts despite mass strikes and overwhelming popular opposition, which he derided as “pessimism” and “motionlessness.” On January 2, the rail and transport strike against Macron’s pension “reform,” at 29 days, became the longest-running continuous national strike in France since the May 1968 general strike. Over two-thirds of the population opposes the pension cuts, and strikes continue to break out affecting wider layers of the working population...

Yellow Vest Protest Reaching A Showdown With Macron

March 22, 2019 Richard Greeman, Popular Resistance , ,
The situation in France may be reaching a showdown between the Macron government, which is now considering using the Army against the Yellow Vests, and the social movement, to whose demands the regime continues to turn a deaf ear. The showdown is likely to happen tomorrow, Saturday, and frankly, I have no idea what will happen if the government uses total military might to crush the still-popular Yellow Vests, who are unlikely to back down but may change their tactics.
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