“Where is French democracy? As he was about to deliver a speech on the future of Europe, Emmanuel Macron was interrupted by demonstrators on Tuesday, April 11, in The Hague.
“The climate convention is not respected,” protesters shouted from the stands as they unrolled a banner that read, in English, “president of violence and hypocrisy.”
Netherlands: Emmanuel Macron interrupted at the start of his speech in The Hague by demonstrators pic.twitter.com/0lB5p4Xz5T
“You have millions of protesters in the streets”, they also launched, while the twelfth day of mobilization against the pension reform is scheduled for April 13. “It’s very important to have a social debate,” replied the French head of state, when he was able to speak again after a minute’s interruption. “I can answer all the questions about what we are discussing in France”, “this is a democracy and a democracy is exactly a place where you can demonstrate” and see “this type of intervention”, he said. He underlines.
But “the day you say to yourself ‘when I disagree with the law that has been passed or the people that have been elected, I can do whatever I want because I decide for myself the legitimacy of what I do. “You put democracy at risk,” Emmanuel Macron continued.
After resuming the thread of his speech, the French president returned to this reform. “When I compare” with other European countries, the French “should be less pissed off at me,” he sighed. “Because in your country” the retirement age “is much higher, and in many countries in Europe it is much higher than 64,” he insisted.