Top related persons:
Top related locs:
Top related orgs:

Search resuls for: "Macron’s"


25 mentions found


French Protests Grow Volatile in Test for Macron
  + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Noemie Bisserbe | ) www.wsj.com   time to read: 1 min
PARIS—French President Emmanuel Macron faced a nationwide demonstration Tuesday as the protest movement against his pension overhaul has begun to morph into a violent rebuke of presidential power. More than 13,000 police officers were deployed across the country, including 5,500 in Paris, for protests that were expected to draw more young people. Many say they have been spurred by Mr. Macron’s decision to invoke a special provision of the French constitution to raise the retirement age without a vote in the National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament.
Video of French police personnel discarding their handcuffs in a protest in 2020 has been shared online as depicting the officers joining protests in France against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the pension age. A tweet sharing the miscaptioned video has been viewed more than 128,000 times at the time of writing (here). The clip can be seen at the 00:30 mark of a video shared by Russian news agency Ruptly in 2020 (here). The video was filmed during widely reported demonstrations in France in June 2020 in response to tougher measures imposed on the police force. The video shows French police personnel discarding their handcuffs in a demonstration in 2020.
PARIS—More than a million protesters took to the streets across France on Thursday in a full-throated rebuke of President Emmanuel Macron ’s decision to push his pension overhaul through Parliament. The turnout, which produced a river of humanity that snaked through the boulevards of Paris, was a sign that public resistance to Mr. Macron’s overhaul isn’t letting up even as the measures are set to become law.
PARIS—Workers across France walked off the job and took to the streets in the first organized nationwide demonstration since President Emmanuel Macron pushed his pension overhaul through Parliament. Turnout at the protests on Thursday will provide an indication of how much momentum protesters still have to continue demonstrations now that the bill is set to become law. Spontaneous protests, some of them violent, have erupted around the country since Mr. Macron decided a week ago to invoke a special provision of the French Constitution to bypass Parliament and raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030.
Paris CNN —More than a million people took to the streets across France on Thursday with protests turning violent in some areas as demonstrators voiced their fury at proposed pension reforms. At least 80 people were arrested and 123 police officers injured in France on Thursday during the nationwide protests, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. The gate of the Bordeaux city hall after it was set on fire during a demonstration on a national day of action, on March 23 in Bordeaux, southwestern France. French riot police apprehend a protester amid clashes during a demonstration against pension reform in Paris on March 23, 2023. It rammed the legislation through the French National Assembly last week using a constitutional clause that allows the government to bypass a vote.
The country’s generous pension system and early retirement have long been a point of pride since they were enacted after World War II. Railway workers hold a banner reading "Until the withdrawal" during a demonstration a few days after the government forced the pension reform through parliament without a vote. Macron and his government have defended the retirement reform as necessary to keep the pension system funded. He also defended the decision to push through the reform as financially necessary, no matter how unpopular it was. Between opinion polls and the national interest, I chose the national interest,” Macron said.
Macron is right and wrong on share buybacks
  + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
LONDON, March 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Emmanuel Macron dislikes the “cynicism” of large profitable companies engaging in massive share buyback programmes. The French president has a point that there are better ways for companies to spend their profits than to reduce their share count. Share buybacks in Europe’s largest 11 markets nearly doubled last year to 161 billion euros, according to a report by BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA), which itself is spending some 5 billion euros - or half its net profit - to acquire its own stock. And from an economic viewpoint, money spent cuddling shareholders would be better spent on investment and growth. That said, the scope for one country to regulate share buybacks in isolation – and to stop companies just paying out special dividends instead - is dubious.
PARIS—French President Emmanuel Macron ’s government narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly on Monday, fending off an effort to kill his contentious pension overhaul and topple his administration. The no-confidence motion spearheaded by a group of centrists won the support of 278 lawmakers in the lower house of parliament, a mere nine votes short of a majority.
Protesters set garbage on fire in Paris, prompting police to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse the groups . President Emmanuel Macron of France might have circumvented Parliament in passing his contentious pension overhaul, but there remains a large constituency—millions of street protesters—who contend they have final say in the matter. Protest movements have long been the final arbiter, albeit an unofficial one, of France’s political system, bringing successive governments to their knees and forcing previous presidents to abandon or even rescind legislation protesters oppose. That is why thousands of protesters have streamed into public squares across France since Mr. Macron exercised Article 49 of the constitution to raise France’s retirement age to 64 from 62 by 2030 without the consent of Parliament.
Canada petrol king shows belated faith in own plan
  + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
LONDON, March 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.TO) is expanding its empire of petrol station rest stops. On Thursday, the $44 billion Canadian gas station giant said it would buy some of TotalEnergies’ (TTEF.PA) European assets for 3.1 billion euros. The swoop is also a sign that Couche-Tard is more confident in its own business model than in the recent past. Back then, it seemed Couche-Tard was looking to diversify its empire of highway rest stops. But if EV battery power or home-charging facilities improve, Couche-Tard’s business model may not stack up.
Protesters attend a demonstration Wednesday in Escaudoeuvres, France, against the government’s pension reform plan. PARIS—Hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets across France on Wednesday, piling pressure on President Emmanuel Macron to ditch his plans to raise the country’s retirement age as the measure heads for a crucial vote in Parliament. Teachers, nurses, train drivers and other workers walked off the job and marched in demonstrations from Paris to Nice, the eighth such protest since unions launched their campaign to oppose Mr. Macron’s overhaul.
Protesters marched Saturday through the streets of Lille, France, during a demonstration over a proposed pension overhaul. PARIS—Around 368,000 people marched against President Emmanuel Macron ’s proposed pension overhaul on Saturday, a drop in turnout for the seventh round of national protests against Mr. Macron’s plan. Saturday’s protest comes after unions stepped up their fight against the pension overhaul on Tuesday, rallying 1.28 million people into the streets in one of France’s largest protests in decades. The far-left CGT and other big French unions said Tuesday’s protest would begin an open-ended strike until the government drops the pension overhaul.
Protesters, in Paris on Tuesday, hope to force the French government to reverse course on its proposed pension overhaul. PARIS—Workers across France walked off the job and took to the streets Tuesday, kicking off what unions are touting as an open-ended standoff with President Emmanuel Macron over his plans to raise the retirement age. Tuesday’s mobilization marks a major escalation in the campaign to stop Mr. Macron’s overhaul. The French leader has withstood several daylong strikes since the start of the year, with two demonstrations each drawing as many as a million protesters.
Air France said about 20% of short-haul flights would be canceled, but long-haul services would be maintained. The reforms will gradually increase the age at which most French citizens can draw a state pension to 64, from 62. A record 1.3 million people took part in demonstrations on January 19, which brought the country to a standstill and shuttered the Eiffel Tower to visitors. The government has said the pension legislation is necessary to tackle a funding deficit, but the reforms have angered workers at a time when living costs are rising. The legislation is currently before French lawmakers, with a vote on the final version of the text expected later this month.
Protesters turned out across France on Thursday for the fifth time in four weeks. PARIS—Thousands of people went on strike and took to the streets Thursday to protest French President Emmanuel Macron ’s plan to raise the country’s retirement age, turning up the pressure on his government as parliamentary debates over the measures intensify. For the fifth time in four weeks, teachers, train drivers, nurses, oil-refinery staff and other workers marched in demonstrations from Paris to Marseille. The protests are aimed at pressuring the Macron government to reverse a plan to raise the retirement age to 64 years old from 62 by 2030.
PARIS—Nearly a million French marched in the streets against President Emmanuel Macron ’s pension overhaul on Saturday, signaling that the opposition movement to Mr. Macron’s plans was holding up in a fourth round of nationwide protests. Labor unions organized the demonstrations on the weekend to draw more people into the streets rather than ask workers to strike for the fourth time in less than a month. More than a million people protested during the first strike organized last month, disrupting schools, factories and transport across the country.
Workers in France’s education, transportation, healthcare and refinery sectors staged union-led strikes Tuesda, aimed at forcing the government to reverse course on its plan to raise the retirement age. PARIS—Continuing strike action is eroding parliamentary support for French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposed pension overhaul, with workers staging a new walkout that snarled traffic, canceled trains and shut some schools across the country. For the third time in three weeks, teachers, bus drivers, nurses, oil-refinery workers and others staged union-led strikes Tuesday aimed at forcing the government to reverse course on its plan to raise the retirement age from 62 years old to 64 by 2030. Masses of people took to the streets in demonstrations against the proposed overhaul that sprawled over dozens of French cities and towns including Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse.
PARIS—French workers are taking to the streets for the second time in two weeks, piling more pressure on President Emmanuel Macron ‘s plans to raise France’s retirement age and threatening further walkouts that could grind much of the country to a halt. Striking teachers and railway, health and oil workers are staging marches in dozens of cities as a part of a nationwide day of action called by unions to force the government to back down from its pension overhaul. Train, subway and bus services are severely curtailed, and dozens of flights have been canceled. Many schools and nurseries will remain closed.
Paris/London CNN —French schools and transportation networks were heavily disrupted Tuesday for the second time this month, as unions staged another mass strike against government plans to raise the retirement age for most workers. Strikes that day brought the transportation network to a standstill and shuttered the Eiffel Tower to visitors. Air France (AFLYY) canceled 10% of short-haul flights but said strikes would not affect long-haul services. On Sunday, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne said raising the retirement age was “not negotiable,” during an interview on domestic television station France Info. Raising the retirement age to 64 will keep France below the norm in Europe and in many other developed economies, where the age at which full pension benefits vest is 65 and increasingly moving towards 67.
The CGT is gearing up for another round of protests against a proposed pension overhaul. PARIS—To fight President Emmanuel Macron’s pension overhaul, France’s most militant labor union is pursuing a radical strategy: cutting electricity to his political supporters and the wealthy while handing out discounted power and gas to the public. During a nationwide strike last week, members of the far-left CGT union who work in the energy sector cut power to the office of a lawmaker from Mr. Macron’s party for more than three hours. On Monday, CGT energy workers in Marseille manipulated electricity and gas meters to cut bills for bakers who were protesting in the French port city against high energy prices. CGT’s leadership called such moves a “Robin Hood” operation and said they would continue as the country prepares for another national protest on Tuesday.
Protesters waved flares during a rally against the government’s pension plan in Marseille, in the south of France. PARIS—More than one million people took to the streets and workers across France went on strike Thursday to protest the government’s plan to raise the country’s retirement age, kicking off what is expected to be a protracted battle between unions and President Emmanuel Macron . The French capital ground to a halt as teachers and railway, health and oil workers went on strike, forcing many schools and nurseries to shut down. Several museums, including the Louvre, said parts of their collections wouldn’t open. Trains, subways and buses were curtailed and dozens of flights canceled.
Protesters wave flares during a rally against the government’s pension-reform plan in Marseille, in the south of France. PARIS—Thousands of people took to the streets and workers across France went on strike Thursday to protest the government’s plan to raise the country’s retirement age, kicking off what is expected to be a protracted battle between unions and President Emmanuel Macron . The French capital ground to a halt as teachers and railway, health and oil workers went on strike, forcing many schools and nurseries to shut down. Several museums, including the Louvre, said parts of their collections wouldn’t open. More than 10,000 police officers were deployed across the country, including 1,500 in Paris.
French workers would have to work longer before receiving a pension under the new rules — with the nominal retirement age rising from 62 to 64. Many French workers expressed mixed feeling about the government’s plan and pointed to the complexity of the pension system. For those who do not fulfil that condition, like many women who interrupted their career to raise their children or those who studied for a long time and started working late, the retirement age would remain unchanged at 67. Those who started to work early, under the age of 20, and workers with major health issues would be allowed early retirement. Protracted strikes met Macron’s last effort to raise the retirement age in 2019.
Protests in major French cities, including Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes and Nice, brought transport services to a standstill. Eight of the biggest unions had called for a “first day of strikes and protests” against pension reforms unveiled by President Emmanuel Macron’s government. Train lines across France were seeing “severe disruption,” according to French rail authority SNCF. Macron’s proposed pension reforms come as workers in France, as elsewhere, are being squeezed by rising food and energy bills. The French government has said that raising the retirement age is necessary to tackle a pension funding deficit.
PARIS—French President Emmanuel Macron is pressing ahead with his plan to raise the country’s retirement age despite opposition from unions and lawmakers, a decisive test of the centrist leader’s ability to enact his pro-business agenda during his second term in office. Mr. Macron’s government is expected to unveil details of the proposed pension overhaul on Tuesday. The move risks sparking a new wave of protests in France, where tensions have been simmering for months because of rising food and fuel prices. Unions have already called for strikes and pledged to stage nationwide protests this month to block the new measures.
Total: 25