Emmanuel Macron has said that banging saucepans at him will not move France forward, as about 100 protesters bashing pots were pushed back by police when the French president visited a factory in Alsace in an attempt to contain anger over raising the pension age from 62 to 64.
Members of the CGT and CFDT trade unions had gathered in front of the mayor’s office in the village of Muttersholtz on Wednesday, where Macron began a series of visits to rural France to try to calm tensions over his unpopular pensions changes.
Demonstrators banged frying pans and pan lids as well as whistles and horns. After repeated requests from police to move back from the area, where local authorities had banned demonstrations, officers used force to push them 200 metres away.
“It’s not saucepans that are going to allow France to move forward,” said Macron. He described the demonstrations as “just the times we live in”.
“We can relaunch the French saucepan industry, we don’t produce enough,” he said, adding that his priority was re-industrialisation, work and jobs. “The reality across the whole country is not just those making noise with saucepans or complaining.
“You will always see me with people … I have to keep going,” he added.
Sporadic protests have continued since Macron signed the pensions changes into law at the weekend after three months of demonstrations and union fury that the government used an executive order to push through the law, bypassing a vote in parliament.
This week, small groups have gathered at night, particularly in Paris where bins have been burned after dark.
The banging of pots and pans as a new form of protest started on Monday night during Macron’s televised address, as hundreds gathered outside town halls to drown out the president. The clattering of pots began at the suggestion of the NGO Attac, which campaigns on tax and social justice. This form of protest, which has a long history in the country, could follow Macron around rural France this week.
About 300 people also banged pots, pans and kitchenware and called for Macron’s resignation in Saint-Denis on Tuesday night when he attended a private event.
Unions have planned more protests as Macron makes further visits across the country this week. The scenes are reminiscent of the president’s travels around France during the gilets-jaunes anti-government protests of 2018-19 when Macron was frequently confronted by angry hecklers.
He was slapped in the face in 2021 by a 28-year-old unemployed medieval history enthusiast during a visit to a small town in south-eastern France.
The next nationwide trade union-led demonstrations will be on labour day on 1 May. Meanwhile, some were looking for new ways to protest. On Wednesday, a free climber known as the “French Spiderman” scaled a 38-storey skyscraper in Paris in protest at the raising of the pension age.
Alain Robert, 60, climbs without a harness, using only his bare hands and a pair of climbing shoes. “I’m here to show my support for those who oppose the pension reform,” he told Reuters before starting his ascent of the 150-metre (492ft) skyscraper in the capital’s La Défense business district.
“I’m here to tell Emmanuel Macron to come back down to earth … by climbing with no safety net.”
He said the increase in the minimum pension age, combined with a loss of income due to the Covid pandemic, meant he would have to keep on working, and climbing, for longer.
