Macron’s last adventure: the President vs the public

Every generation or so, French politics is decided on the streets. The May 1968 unrest in Paris spread worldwide; Jacques Chirac’s welfare reform agenda was ended with the 1995 disturbances. The spirit of revolt is so alive in French society that a special police force exists for such occasions, specialising in crowd control. Now President Emmanuel Macron is facing another sustained revolt. Eight weeks into the battle over his pension reforms, it’s far from clear who – if anyone – is winning.

Police cars and buildings have been set alight in Strasbourg, Lille, Saint-Étienne and Bordeaux. In Paris, bin men have just ended a three-week strike: some 10,000 tonnes of garbage is piled up on the streets and the city is infested with well-nourished rats. In western France last weekend, at the site of a proposed reservoir, violent confrontations between police and eco activists resembled scenes of war.

Such events make British strikes seem piffling. Millions have taken to the streets in demonstrations called by the unions. They are demanding the withdrawal of the President’s pension reform, which he is attempting to impose by decree after it was voted down by the National Assembly. Have there been two million protestors in all? Five million? Eight million? It depends on who’s counting. High school and university students have joined in. French air traffic controllers (who are allowed to retire aged 52) have disrupted flights all over Europe. It adds up to a national tantrum, in which all logic has gone missing.

Macron’s proposed reform – to lift the state pension age from 62, one of the lowest in Europe, to a still quite low 64 – is perfectly rational. The country’s solvency is at stake. When the generous pensions system was set up in the postwar years, life expectancy was 66.