Francia colpita dall’ondata di proteste e scioperi mentre il piano di austerità approfondisce la rabbia di Macron

You simply cannot have a situation where the average pensioner earns more than the average working age adult. Unfortunately, pensioners are more reliable voters than other demographics so this is the result.

so, young people are protesting that boomers will be left with a large pension and that the state will become even more indebted?

or am I wrong?

France never backs down when it comes to protesting. History repeating itself.

You either have more children, work longer, or have less money when you retire. That is it. There is no magic solution that will make you happy. Same goes for every eu nation.

Good. Fuck Macron, his rule has been amazing for the rich

Who knew that France would be the reason for the fall of the euro. My bet was always on Italy.

As a tourist currently in Paris, I had no idea these were happening until an hour ago when the cashier at the Monoprix warned me. I’m a few blocks from the route, and it’s all sirens and chaos. The Metro is barely functioning, the Eiffel Tower is closed, and the people where I’m staying are saying to avoid Concorde and the river in general tonight.

Mostly glad that I don’t need to take the train to my next destination today. And I somewhat wish my own government would engage in some form of austerity before the US goes bankrupt, but there’s no way the current administration is heading towards anything but fiscal suicide.

**Protesters have hit France with transport strikes, demonstrations and traffic blockades, pitting the power of the streets against President Emmanuel Macron’s government and its proposals to cut funding for public services.**

The first whiffs of police tear gas came before daybreak on Thursday, with scuffles between riot officers and protesters in Paris.

Planned nationwide demonstrations, from France’s biggest cities to small towns, were expected to mobilise hundreds of thousands of marchers and voice anger about mounting poverty, sharpening inequality and growing struggles for low-paid workers and others to make ends meet.

“We say ‘no’ to the government. We’ve had enough. There’s no more money, a high cost of living,” striking transport worker Nadia Belhoum said at a before-dawn protest targeting a Paris bus depot.

She described “people agonising, being squeezed like a lemon even if there’s no more juice”.

**Unions targeting budget cuts**

Labour unions that called strikes are pushing for the abandonment of proposed budget cuts, social welfare freezes and other belt-tightening that opponents contend will further hit the pockets of low-paid and middle-class workers and which triggered the collapse of successive governments that sought to push through savings.

Opponents of Mr Macron’s business-friendly leadership complain that taxpayer-funded public services – free schools and public hospitals, subsidised health care, unemployment benefits and other safety nets that are cherished in France – are being eroded.

Left-wing parties and their supporters want the wealthy and businesses to pay more, rather than see spending cuts to plug holes in France’s finances and to rein in its debts.

“Public service is falling apart,” said teacher Claudia Nunez. “It’s always the same people who pay.”

**New PM’s baptism of fire**

The planned day of upheaval – with strikes also impacting schools, industry and other sectors of the EU’s second-largest economy – aimed to turn up the heat on new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu.

Mr Macron appointed him last week, tasking Mr Lecornu with building parliamentary support for proposed belt-tightening that brought down his immediate predecessors.

“Bringing in Lecornu doesn’t change anything – he’s just another man in a suit who will follow Macron’s line,” said 22-year-old student Juliette Martin.

“We want our voices heard. People my age feel like no one in politics is speaking for us,” she said. “It’s always our generation that ends up with the insecurity and the debt.”

Unions have decried budget proposals by Mr Macron’s minority governments, weakened by their lack of a dependable majority in parliament, as brutal and punitive for workers, retirees and others who are vulnerable.

Mr Macron’s opponents also continue to denounce unpopular pension reforms that he railroaded through parliament and which raised the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64, triggering a firestorm of anger and rounds of protest earlier in what is his second and last term as president, which ends in 2027.