Remarks
Macron’s Headstrong Bent Jeopardizes His Reform Plans for France
In ramming through a change in the retirement age, he may have made himself a lame duck.
A March 29 protest in Paris against France’s new pension bill.
Photographer: Evgeniy ReinThis article is for subscribers only.
The French like to say they are ungovernable, invoking Charles de Gaulle’s exasperated (and likely apocryphal) comment about the difficulty of managing a country with 246 different cheeses. Emmanuel Macron, too, has called the French obstinately opposed to change.
Both presidents, former and current, might appear to be right given the images of the Bordeaux City Hall gate that was torched March 23 or the cancellation of King Charles III’s visit over worries about violent protests coinciding with his stay in Paris. In truth, the French aren’t more averse to change than most.