PARIS (AP) — In France, when presidents take strolls among the public, they’re described as “taking a crowd bath.” Emmanuel Macron took a very cold one on Wednesday.
Braving hecklers who shouted for him to resign, the French leader threw himself into the uphill task of repairing damage done to his presidency by forcing through unpopular pension reforms, taking his first such “crowd bath” since he enacted the law last week.
The visit to eastern France, close to the border with Germany, was part of a concerted new effort by Macron and his government to put the furor caused by the pension change behind him. Raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 has ignited a months-long firestorm of protest.
The uproarious climate of discontent threatens Macron’s ability to get some other planned policies through in the remaining four years of his second and last term. He got to see first-hand how unhappy people still are when he mingled among a crowd in the town of Selestat.
One man who shook his hand didn’t hold back and told Macron that his government is “corrupt” — a claim that Macron immediately denied.
