/ world today news/ The 12th protest rally against Macron’s pension reform is now taking place in the country.
„I remain a Eurosceptic, convinced that France should withdraw from NATO‘s Joint Command and stop supplying Ukraine with offensive weapons.” said Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Unity, in an interview published April 13 with an Italian newspaper.
However, she added that “a Russian victory would be a disaster”…
Marine Le Pen is still seeking to become president. According to the latest Ifop survey for the Journal du Dimanche, Macron’s approval ratings fell to 28% in March. This is the lowest level since the beginning of 2019. According to a poll conducted from March 9 to 16, 70% of French people disapprove of Macron’s actions to quell mass protests against the pension reform.
„If the voters were to vote again today,” writes Le Figaro, “Marine Le Pen would come out on top in the first round with 31% of the vote, which is 7.5 percent points more than her result on April 10, 2022. This is a historic event… Now Marine Le Pen gets the protest votes “says Frédéric Dabi, CEO of Ifop.
„In a few years we have gone from the most hated party in France to the most loved in France,” said Le Pen triumphantly to the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
Macron’s rapid decline in approval ratings is linked to a storm of protests sparked by the adoption of a law to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, bypassing parliament. The law has been passed. The authorities will start raising the retirement age from 1 September 2023.
The 12th protest against Macron’s pension reform is currently taking place in France. Britain’s The Telegraph reported not without glee: “Graffiti, vandalism and filth, disfiguring the streets of Paris, spread across the country. The dilapidated infrastructure and hideous monuments to the avant-garde ‘stars’ epitomize the fading of Parisian elegance in art, dress and manners…
The reasons for the crisis are countless. At its core, however, lies the despair of a people who have been deceived for so long that they no longer trust their leaders… The mood is dark, at times even apocalyptic: the present is so hopeless, and the people have been destroyed for so long that they have lost any hope for the future.”
The outlook for the economy is bleak. In one of the leading sectors of the French industry – the automobile, sales collapsed by 17%, now the industry is literally fighting for existence. Renault, Peugeot and Citroen are fighting for survival because of the high cost of energy.
France’s once-thriving agriculture is also losing ground, especially in beef production. At the same time, the tax burden in France is one of the heaviest in the world. The tax-to-GDP ratio is 45.4%, the second highest in the OECD. Youth unemployment in France remains persistently high at 15.6%.
„France has long been the sick man of Europe” writes the French newspaper Marianne. “Our mass protests against the pension reform speak to this, our 3 trillion euro debts and our record foreign trade deficit (160 billion euros) speak to this …
Add to this the millions of poor and unemployed people who use the services of free charity meals. Throw in uncontrolled migration on top (320,000 people were granted residency and 150,000 became applicants for refugee status in 2022 alone). We must not forget the deindustrialization of France… And then there is the increasing inoperability of our nuclear power plants and hospitals.”
Le Pen lost twice in previous presidential elections, but now the situation is radically different. However, the next presidential election in France is far away: it will not take place until 2027. There is no doubt that the policy that invites France to “withdraw from NATO’s joint command and stop supplying Ukraine with offensive weapons,” will be picked up by “game masters” with a strong opponent.
Translation: EU
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