Arthur De Laborde, with AFP
modified to
7:33 p.m., April 11, 2023
While he was to speak in The Hague as part of his trip to the Netherlands to discuss sovereignty issues, President Emmanuel Macron was interrupted by protesters.
French President Emmanuel Macron was interrupted on Tuesday in The Hague by protesters who challenged him on “democracy” as he prepared to deliver a speech on the future of Europe, journalists from the AFP. “Where is French democracy?”, “The climate convention is not respected”, protesters shouted from the stands while unrolling a banner on which was written in English “President of violence and hypocrisy” .
FLASH – “President of violence and hypocrisy”: Emmanuel #Macron was stopped by demonstrators during his speech in The Hague. They were evacuated by security. (LCI) pic.twitter.com/dcw963FqWa
– Mediavenir (@Mediavenir) April 11, 2023
“You have millions of protesters in the streets”
“You have millions of demonstrators in the streets”, they also launched, while the French government has been confronted since the beginning of the year with a very strong challenge to its reform aiming to postpone from 62 to 64 years the starting age retirement. “It’s very important to have a social debate,” replied the French head of state when he was able to speak again after a minute’s interruption. “I can answer all the questions about what we are discussing in France”, “this is a democracy and a democracy is exactly a place where you can demonstrate” and see “this type of intervention”, he said. He underlines. But “the day you say to yourself ‘when I disagree with the law that was passed or the people who were elected, I can do whatever I want because I decide for myself the legitimacy of what I do ‘, you put democracy in danger”, continued Emmanuel Macron.
Picking up the thread of his speech on European economic policy, the French president then returned to his reform, on the merits. “When I compare” with other European countries, the French “should be less angry with me,” he sighed. “Because in your country” the retirement age “is much higher, and in many countries in Europe it is much higher than 64,” he insisted. The French president was then able to truly begin his speech on European economic and industrial sovereignty. The Head of State also briefly returned to what had just happened when discussing competitiveness. “To be competitive, you have to pass reforms and this is the case for social systems in France,” he explained.