Two people have been arrested this Wednesday after trying to shout at French President Emmanuel Macron, upon his arrival at the University of Amsterdam with King Willem-Alexander, the second incident that occurs during the French leader’s state visit to the Netherlands .
One of the protesters ran towards Macron upon his arrival at the university, chanting the protest song ‘On est là’, which is often sung at protests in France, but was prevented from approaching the French president by security guards. They threw him to the ground and later took him away, arrested, along with a woman.
After getting out of the car, Macron and Willem-Alexander continued to talk calmly, while the security guards handled the incident, and greeted the rest of the authorities who were waiting for them at the entrance of the university, including the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema.
At an event organized this Tuesday at the Amare center in The Hague by the Nexus Institute, dedicated to the study of European cultural heritage, Macron was also interrupted at the beginning of his speech by activists who shouted from the stands “Where is French democracy? ” and they displayed a banner that read “president of violence and hypocrisy.”
Thousands of French have taken to the streets of Paris these weeks to demand the withdrawal of the reform that increases the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 years, something in which the Government has been inflexible.
Macron, accompanied by his wife Briggite, has been in Amsterdam since Tuesday on a two-day official visit, the first by a French head of state to the Netherlands in 23 years, since the official trip of Jacques Chirac and his wife Bernadette in the 2000.
Both have an intense two-day agenda in the Netherlands and today they plan to end the day with a visit to the historical exhibition on Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, immediately after a bilateral meeting between Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
This visit “reaffirms the excellent relations between France and the Netherlands” and contributes to “the deepening of cooperation” at a time when both countries “fight for a stronger, greener and safer Europe,” said the service of Dutch government information (RVD).
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