After his reelection in April 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron promised to pursue consensus to advance his agenda. Less than a year later, however, millions of protesters have paralyzed the country, after Macron forced through a pension reform over widespread popular opposition and a lack of votes in parliament.
A day of nationwide strikes against French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform plans, which would lift the French retirement age by two years, has paralyzed France. The big question now is whether Macron will blink and retract the law, which he pushed through last week without a parliamentary vote.
For the past month, France has been in the grip of protests against pension reforms proposed by the government of President Emmanuel Macron, with close to a million people demonstrating across the country on Feb. 11. The protests have so far been entirely orderly. But with the government sticking to its guns, tension is mounting.
