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Widespread rejection of French President Emmanuel Macron’s planned pension overhaul was a key factor in his failure to win a parliamentary majority following his re-election last year. His decision to ram through his deeply unpopular reform, without a vote, turns an already festering dispute into a political and institutional crisis.
At the height of Thursday’s extraordinary political drama, shortly after the government announced it would force through its contentious pension reform amid a huge fracas in parliament, protesters began to converge on the sprawling Place de la Concorde in central Paris, a mere bridge away from the heavily guarded National Assembly.
For a moment, the old cradle of revolutions looked to be rolling back the years, convulsed by a spontaneous rush of outrage and anger – though protesters only numbered a few thousand.
There were the usual suspects, like leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, thundering against a reform he said had “no legitimacy – neither in parliament, nor in the street”. Unionists were also out in strength, hailing a moral victory even as they denounced Macron’s “violation of democracy”.
Many more were ordinary protesters who had flocked to the Concorde after class or work. One brandished a giant fork made of cardboard as the crowd chanted “Macron démission” (Macron resign). Another spray-painted an ominous message on a metal barrier – “The shadow of the guillotine is nearing” – in the exact spot where Louis XVI was executed 230 years ago.
“It’s a powerful image, the people taking over this…
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