In southern France, police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators protesting the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron.
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The trip of the head of state is connected with the issues of school education. On the morning of April 20, Macron arrived in the commune of Ganges in the Occitania region, accompanied by Education Minister Pap Ndiai. Near Louise-Michel College, protesters were already waiting for the delegation, who were trying to break through the fence.
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About two thousand people gathered in the center of the commune, they beat on pots and chanted: “Macron resign!”
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The area was guarded by about 600 gendarmes, they began to search those who came and take away pots, referring to a decree prohibiting the bringing of “portable sound devices” to the demonstration.
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Macron in Ganja chose not to communicate with citizens.
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Photographs on social networks show that signs addressed to the president appeared on the houses: “Get out of our lives”, “The king is exhausting the people”, “Resistance, solidarity, democracy”.
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The day before, Macron went on his first trip around the country since the final adoption of the pension reform. The president arrived in the eastern region of Alsace, all the time he was accompanied by whistling and insulting shouts. Hundreds of citizens tripled the “march of empty pots”, banging spoons on the dishes they brought with them, and at the construction plant, where the head of state arrived, the trade unions turned off the electricity.
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Macron said that he “hears the anger of the French and respects it,” but this will not stop him from traveling around the country.
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The French Constitutional Council on Friday approved a key article of the pension reform bill, which calls for a gradual increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030. On Saturday night, Macron signed the law. After that, the French trade unions called for an “exclusive and popular” protest action on May 1.
