As Macron and his prime minister dig their heels in over pension reform whereas France faces a Black Monday transport chaos and extra strikes tomorrow, the pair could but discover that their “allow them to eat cake” perspective is just not working.
Whereas the strikes roll on, Emmanuel Macron and Edouard Philippe have demonstrated they share one key attribute: a tin ear for public sentiment that will make Marie Antoinette blush.
Philippe prompt final week that the nation’s present disaster could be resolved when staff understood “that little by little we should work a bit longer,” and his comment was a transparent echo of the sentiment expressed earlier this 12 months by Macron who declared “We should work extra, I’ve mentioned it earlier than. France works a lot lower than its neighbours.”
Removed from accepting the decrees of ‘The Emperor’ and his Prime Minister, the French individuals have greeted their proposals with the largest wave of business motion for a decade, which means public transport has floor to a halt, as flights, trains, metro and buses have been cancelled throughout France.
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On Monday, solely round 15 % of regular providers are working throughout the nation and public transport is severely disrupted in Paris.
In the meantime the Prime Minister, seemingly oblivious to the fury on the streets, nonetheless insists. “I’m decided to finish the reform.”
However now there are cracks showing within the Authorities’s case. Sources reported in some newspapers are suggesting that Macron is keen to compromise on his plan to make sure all French staff get the identical state pension. He may postpone the implementation of his reform till 2035 in a tactical retreat, which, whereas decreasing the efficiency of the reform, would nonetheless be higher than a full-scale capitulation.
Whereas the prime minister is predicted to put out particulars of the pension reform on Wednesday, that won’t be quickly sufficient to keep away from a repeat of the chaos attributable to final Thursday’s strikes, which noticed as much as 180,000 individuals take to the streets in Paris, throwing projectiles and fireworks at police, who responded with tear gasoline and pepper spray.
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Academics, medical doctors, transport staff, police, attorneys and hospital staff have been among the many estimated 1.5 million who took half in protests throughout France final week, with extra anticipated tomorrow amid rising tensions over the neoliberal insurance policies of Macron and his En Marche! Motion.
The strikes come at a time when the grassroots Gilets Jaunes motion was starting to flag, as numbers of protestors at their weekly occasions had began to dwindle. Now Macron along with his pension reform plans has managed to pour gas on their protest, assist is on the up, and the entire motion has been reinvigorated.
After a 12 months of protests which introduced the riot police out onto the streets of Paris, Nantes, Bordeaux and different massive cities, it’s unlikely that the French individuals will settle for being informed by the person they dub ‘The President of the Wealthy’ that the answer to their nation’s financial issues is solely increasingly more work.
It’s not solely his unpopular neoliberal insurance policies, but additionally the way during which Macron quells dissent that causes such upset.
For the French, the iron fist of the State is known as into motion so steadily that some Parisians say watching the Gilets Jaunes battle with the police is now the second hottest spectator sport on a Saturday afternoon, behind soccer.
With expectations of clashes, tomorrow could show to be a midweek fixture.
By Damian Wilson, UK journalist & political communications specialist
