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”.
A woman hits a pan during a protest in Saint-Denis, Paris, on Tuesday….
This article was written by Angelique Chrisafis in Paris and originally published on www.theguardian.com