Protesters heckle Macron during speech in Netherlands
A speech by French President Emmanuel Macron in the Netherlands was interrupted by protesters, who lambasted him for the current state of democracy in France following weeks of protest rallies against a controversial pension reform plan.
Macron was in the beginning of his speech on European sovereignty at the Nexus Institute in the Amare theater in The Hague on Tuesday when a male protester among the audience addressed him, asking, "I think we lost something; where is French democracy?"
Through his proposed reforms, Macron is pushing to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64, saying it is vital if the country is to avoid the collapse of the state pension system.
The controversial proposal has triggered waves of massive protests across the country and created a political crisis since January, with human rights groups accusing the French police of using a heavy hand against demonstrators.
Back in March 15, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne infuriated protesters as she invoked a controversial executive power to ram the reform through parliament without a vote, turning protests violent amid allegations of violence against French security forces.
In The Hague, another protester followed the first one, yelling at Macron, "Why did you bypass [the] French parliament?"
Macron responded by saying, "Do you allow me to answer?" and turned toward the protesters, who continued to heckle him over his track record and held a banner saying, "President of violence and hypocrisy."
"This is democracy, because it is a place where you can… have such incidents," Macron said.
Raising the retirement age by two years and extending the pay-in period would yield an additional 17.7 billion euros ($19.18 billion) in annual pension contributions, according to Labor Ministry estimates.
Both sides - the protesters and the government - are awaiting an April 14 verdict by France's Constitutional Council on the validity of the pension reform bill put forward by Macron, whose popularity has been eroded by the standoff.
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