TRADE unions, students and youth marched through the streets of Paris yesterday against Emmanuel Macron’s proposed ‘Labour Reforms’ on the very next day after his election.
President-elect Macron’s ‘Labour Reforms’ make it easier to hire and fire workers and remove the 35-hour week, instead bosses can ‘negotiate directly with employees on working time.’
French CRS riot police wearing full body armour surrounded the march and then charged at protesters wielding their batons. Before the attack, one of the hundreds who were on the march, Anorina said: ‘We are here to say we do not have the same position as him. We are protesting to say do not forget that we are here and we are against you.
‘The protest today is important. Although I did vote for him, I just want to let him know that we did not vote for him but against Marie Le Pen. I do not want him to feel at ease as President because we did not vote for him but against Le Pen.
‘When Macron was economy minister under Hollande he decided many things which took away our social protection. He decided to open many shops on Sundays and that had a big affect on the shop workers.
‘Many of our friends decided not to vote, but for me I was so scared of Marie Le Pen, so I decide to vote for Macron. Unfortunately in our system now they do not want to recognise the people who do not vote and now in this election the amount of people who did not vote was a bigger amount then any other election that we have had, they do not care at all.
‘Our system does not work at all because we voted for a President that we don’t want and the people who didn’t vote are not recognised at all so this is a complete disaster for democracy.’
Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Macron on his victory and wished him ‘strong health’ for the job ahead. In a telegram, Putin told the new president that Russia is ready for constructive work on bilateral and global issues.
He said: ‘The citizens of France have entrusted you the leadership of the country at a difficult time for Europe and for the entire international community.’ Putin added that the growing threat of terrorism and the destabilisation of entire regions, made it ‘particularly important to overcome mutual distrust and unite efforts to ensure international stability and security.’
