'It strengthens anti-establishment forces': Pension reform protests threaten Macron’s agenda

Lara BULLENS
Sat, 29 April 2023

© Jeff Pachoud, AFP

A global credit ratings agency downgraded French debt worthiness a notch on Saturday, citing pension reform protests as a cause. Two weeks after the contested pension reform passed, persistent social movements threaten to erase the financial gains that the French government expected.

As Nantes squares off against Toulouse on Saturday evening for the hotly anticipated French Football Cup finals, the action might not be restricted to the pitch. French trade unions promised a stormy reception for President Emmanuel Macron, who typically greets players of both teams on the pitch before the match kicks off.

They plan to hand out red cards and whistles to spectators outside the Stade de France, to express their anger over the pension reforms.

Macron will still be there despite the pressure, along with 3,000 police officers and gendarmes, but will not step foot on the pitch to avoid being booed, according to AFP.

“The French Football Cup final isn’t a Roman gladiator game,” government spokesperson Olivier Véran told French TV channel BFM on Friday.

“Unions can’t use their imperial thumbs down to decide who should boo the president,” he said.

Disapproval from French unions is no surprise given the current context. An “imperial thumbs down” by a global credit ratings agency, however, came as more of a shock.
A thumbs down for France’s economy

An ironic outcome, since the French government partly justified their decision to push through the contested pension reforms as a way to avoid fiscal deficits and debt downgrade.

Finance minister Bruno Le Maire was quick to dismiss the new rating shortly after it was published.