{"id":6378,"date":"2023-04-11T19:32:46","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T19:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/protesters-shout-down-macron\/"},"modified":"2023-04-11T19:33:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T19:33:56","slug":"protesters-shout-down-macron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/protesters-shout-down-macron\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters shout down Macron on visit to the Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Christian Levaux<\/p>\n<p>THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Anger against an unpopular pension reform in France followed  President Emmanuel Macron to the Netherlands where protesters interrupted a speech he was giving on Tuesday at the start of a two-day state visit.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think we lost something. Where is French democracy?&#8221; one man shouted at the start of the event at the Nexus Institute. Other protesters in the audience targeted the pension law and climate change, while one displayed a banner that read: &#8220;President of violence and hypocrisy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Macron, who was due to give a speech on European sovereignty, has faced weeks of tense protests at home against the pension law, which will delay the age at which French workers can retire.        <\/p>\n<p>Macron competed for several minutes with those who were shouting in trying to make himself heard.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can answer this question, if you give me some time,&#8221; the president said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You vote and you elect people &#8230; the counterparty is you need to respect the institutions voted by the people,&#8221; he said.    &#8220;The day you consider, &#8216;When I disagree with the law &#8230; I can do whatever I want&#8217; &#8230; you put democracy at risk.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Macron then proceeded to give his speech. Reporters in the room said the protesters were removed.<\/p>\n<p>During his speech, he defended the pension law, which will delay retirement age by two years to 64.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I will pass (retirement age) from 62 to 64,&#8221; he said, speaking in English. &#8220;When I compare, they (French protesters) should be less angry with me, because in your country it&#8217;s much higher, and in a lot of countries in Europe, it&#8217;s much higher than 64.&#8221;    <\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day, before a wreath-laying ceremony outside the royal palace, Macron was confronted by protesters who held a banner against the pension reform.  <\/p>\n<p>French unions have planned a new nationwide day of protests on Thursday against the pension law. Opinion polls show a majority of voters oppose the reform and back the protests.<\/p>\n<p>The government pushed it through parliament without a final vote.<\/p>\n<p>The Constitutional Council is due to say on Friday if the law respects the constitution and whether the opposition can start to try and collect enough signatures to organise a referendum against it.    <\/p>\n<p> (Additional reporting by Jean-Stephane Brosse; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Mike Harrison)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/protesters-shout-down-macron\/french-president-macron-on-state-visit-to-netherlands\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportWorldNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3A0JG-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3A0JG-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Christian Levaux THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Anger against an unpopular pension reform in France followed President Emmanuel Macron to the Netherlands where protesters interrupted a speech he was giving on Tuesday at the start of a two-day state visit. &#8220;I think we lost something. Where is French democracy?&#8221; one man shouted at the start of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1222],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-6378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-world-news","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportWorldNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3A0JG-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6378"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6504,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6378\/revisions\/6504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}