“From Nantes to Toulouse, for Macron it’s a red card!”. Union activists, posted on Saturday near the Stade de France, distributed to supporters what to whistle the President of the Republic during the final of the Coupe de France football, won 5-1 by Toulouse.
Finally, the hoped-for protest movement was hardly audible, 49 minutes and 30 seconds after the start of the match, when Toulouse was already largely dominating by 4 goals to 0. The distribution of red cards and plastic whistles had started several hours before kick-off, at the exit of the metro and RER stations serving the sports arena – which welcomed just over 78,000 spectators on Saturday.
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A string of red whistles around the neck, opponents of pension reform harangued travelers with well-rehearsed slogans. “And a whistle for Macron, one!”, chanted, in the tone of a fairground huckster, Jonathan, a 37-year-old territorial civil servant and activist at the FSU – who, like all the people we met, did not wish to give his surname.
“We have contributed, we have the right to rest this evening!”, he proclaimed with a cheerful air, handing travelers leaving the RER station plastic whistles and flyers crossed out with the slogan “red card to retire at 64 years”. Through this initiative, the inter-union, still standing against the recently enacted pension reform, wanted to take advantage of the Head of State’s visit to the Stade de France to encourage spectators to question him, if possible 49 minutes and 30 seconds after the start of the match.
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While advancing briskly towards the stadium, most supporters gladly grabbed the card and the whistle. And those who did not kept a sense of humor: to an activist who called out to him by shouting “Red card for Macron!”, a Nantes supporter replied “Yellow card, rather”, proudly displaying her jersey to the colors of FC Nantes.
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To the tune of yellow vests
For a young supporter of Nantes, it is necessary “to dissociate politics and football”. But overall, “it’s going pretty well, people are pretty much on board with us,” Jonathan observed. “I also had negative reactions, a gentleman even answered me ‘green card for Macron!'”, he conceded.
Conversely, “some take selfies with the red card”, laughed the thirty-something. In front of the RER station, trade unionists alternated cries of “Macron, resign!” with the air of “yellow vests”, become “Even if the prefect does not want it, we are here!”
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Because the prefect of police of Paris, Laurent Nuñez, tried Friday to prohibit the distribution of leaflets and whistles around the stadium, claiming to fear disturbances to public order. A few hours before kick-off, the administrative justice proved him wrong: it suspended his banning order, seeing it as a “serious and manifestly illegal attack on the freedom to demonstrate”.
While authorizing all of the union action, the administrative court did not however challenge the ban on whistles inside the Stadium, which falls under the regulations of the French Football Federation. And in fact, once past the entrance, “we collect all the whistles”, slipped a security manager.
Even the red cards: a young supporter of Nantes, who had undertaken to distribute a bundle of them in the stands, had them confiscated. “I have instructions,” commented the steward. “I’m like you, I’m against retirement at 64, but I’m doing my job”.
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Whatever happens, in the 49th minute, “even without a whistle, we are able to make noise,” said Marco, a 23-year-old engineer who came to support Toulouse. For his partner Emilie, 24, “we have the right, at the very least, to whistle a president who does not listen to his people”.
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However, at the scheduled time, few red cards were waved, and only a few timid whistles were heard, quickly drowned out by the chants of the supporters.
As for President Macron, who before the match had greeted the players of both teams on leaving the locker room, he did not go down to the lawn as is sometimes the custom, and remained in the stand after the match to hand over the Toulouse trophy.