Pension reform: France laughs at ban on cooking pots at anti-Macron demo

pension reform
France laughs at ban on cooking pots at anti-Macron demo

Emmanuel Macron attends a school in Ganges. photo

© Daniel Cole/Pool AP/AP/dpa

France is bitterly arguing about the pension reform – and yet suddenly many people can laugh heartily. A ban on carrying cooking pots at a demo causes shaking of the head.

A ban on cooking pots at a demonstration against President Emmanuel Macron and his pension reform caused a shake of the head in France. Before Macron’s visit to the Ganges in southern France, police officers turned away demonstrators with pots, as videos showed. Media also reported confiscated pots.

The officials justified this with an order from the department. It banned the carrying of “portable sound devices” for the duration of the President’s visit, which apparently also aimed at pots. Because with loud pot banging, demonstrators had expressed their displeasure with Macron’s reform in the past few days.

“Eggs and pots, that’s where I cook,” said Macron at the beginning of his visit to southern France, where demonstrators threw eggs and potatoes far from the head of state.

Opposition politicians made fun of the government’s crackdown on cooking pots. “It’s not the pots that will bring France forward,” Macron said on Wednesday at a drum protest in Alsace. The traditional pot manufacturer Cristel promptly spoke up on Thursday with a wink. “Mr President, at @cristelfrance we make cooking pots that move France forward!!!”

Meanwhile, thousands of people protested again in France on Thursday against the reform that Macron has now put into effect, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. Instead of large demonstrations, as before, it was more about selective protest actions. Demonstrators temporarily blocked train tracks, such as in Lille. In Paris, union members went to the La Défense business district to protest.

dpa

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