Foreign Affairs

Pension reform is law

Macron speaks, the protest is felt: "here is our anger"

At a time when President French assured that he was not deaf to the anger of the French, in the cities the protest was "heard" with concerts of pots and pans, demonstrations and barricades

18/04/2023

Just as President Macron was delivering his televised address to the nation on pension reform, reassuring that he had "listened" to the anger of the French, the protest gathered in Paris and other cities to materially "make their dissent heard": banging on pots and pans, shouting slogans, making as much noise as possible.

In the capital, some dumpsters were set on fire. In Strasbourg, after the concert of pots in the city center, a few hundred people improvised barricades in the middle of the streets using garbage bins or construction objects to block the road. Police repeatedly used tear gas. Garbage fires also punctuated the routes of protesters in Rennes and Caen. Unauthorized demonstrations also in Nantes and Angers.