SELESTAT: Protesters greeted French President Emmanuel Macron with boos and calls for him to resign in his first public appearance on Wednesday since he signed into law an unpopular rise in the retirement age.

Outside a factory he was visiting in the eastern Alsace region, Macron was faced with hostile banners and banging on pots. Unionised workers briefly cut electrical power inside the factory.

Then, as he walked through a crowd in a nearby village, many shouted “Macron, resign!” and one man told him: “We don’t want this pension (reform), why don’t you get?” Another man told him he was leading a corrupt government and added: “You’ll fall soon, just wait and see.”

There were also some cheers - one man told Macron to “hang in there”, a woman thanked him for his work and others asked for selfies.

But even in an area that is pro-Macron and voted slightly more for him than the national average in last year’s presidential election, the reception was mostly hostile.

Macron signed into law at the weekend a rise in the retirement age which means citizens must work two years longer, to 64, before receiving their state pension.

That was after three months of protests that mobilised huge crowds and at times turned violent. Opinion polls show a vast majority of voters oppose the reform.

In the village of Selestat, the centrist president said he was fine with people expressing their discontent “but the country must move forward”.

Earlier during the factory visit, Macron shrugged off the display of discontent, saying: “Pans won’t help France move forward.”

He added that it was not possible for a society to listen only to those who “make the most noise” as he sought to highlight positive aspects of France’s labour legalisation.

Macron and his government say they want to move on and work on other measures to do with working conditions, law and order, education and health issues.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2023