GANGES, France: French police fired teargas Thursday in a village in southern France where President Emmanuel Macron visited a school, a day after he was booed and heckled over his unpopular pension reform.
After facing angry voters on Wednesday in eastern Alsace, the 45-year-old head of state traveled to the southern Herault region on Thursday to discuss education.
The trips outside Paris are intended to signal his desire to turn the page on his unpopular pensions changes and demonstrate he is not hiding from voters, many of whom have been outraged by the way the legislation was passed.
Saying he wanted to “acknowledge and pay teachers better,” the 45-year-old former investment banker announced at a school in the village of Ganges that they would receive between 100-230 euros ($110-250) more a month after tax from September.
In the run up to his speech, police fired teargas when hundreds of people shouting “Macron, resign!” and blowing whistles tried to advance toward the school.
Local authorities also announced a ban on “portable sound equipment” which a spokesman said was meant to target amplifiers and speakers.
But the regional head of the CGT union, Mathieu Guy, told AFP that protesters had also been prevented from entering the secure area close to the school with pans as well as local flutes, known as “fifres.”
Macron’s left-wing political opponents urged their supporters to bash pans during Macron’s televised address to the nation on Monday evening and the age-old protest tactic appears to be becoming an audible sign of discontent at Macron’s policies.
The apparent pan ban led to ridicule on Thursday, with Communist party spokesman Ian Brossat saying he “couldn’t wait for the legislation which will ban the sale of saucepans.”
“Is it possible to leave a democratic crisis behind by banning saucepans?” asked leading Greens MP Sandrine Rousseau.
Speaking to voters on Wednesday, Macron argued again that raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 was necessary to help France reduce its public spending and bring the country into line with its European neighbors.
He signed the legislation into law on Friday evening after a green light from the country’s constitutional court.
Other protests continued on Thursday, with union members entering the headquarters of the pan-European stock exchange Euronext in the main Paris business district.
Demonstrators also forced their way into the headquarters of the LVMH luxury goods empire last Thursday.
Some rail workers also went on strike again on Thursday, forcing the cancelation of one in five regional trains and some commuter services.
Teargas fired as Macron faces more hostile crowds in rural France
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Teargas fired as Macron faces more hostile crowds in rural France
- The trips outside Paris are intended to signal his desire to turn the page on his unpopular pensions changes
- In the run up to his speech, police fired teargas when hundreds of people shouting "Macron, resign!"
Venezuela to debate historic amnesty bill for political prisoners
- Venezuela could pass a landmark bill on Thursday granting amnesty to political prisoners, marking an early milestone in the transition from the rule of toppled leader Nicolas Maduro
CARACAS:Venezuela could pass a landmark bill on Thursday granting amnesty to political prisoners, marking an early milestone in the transition from the rule of toppled leader Nicolas Maduro.
The legislation, which covers charges used to lock up dissidents under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez, aims to turn the page on nearly three decades of state repression.
It was spearheaded by interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who replaced Maduro after he was captured by US forces in Caracas last month and flown to New York to face trial.
Rodriguez took Maduro’s place with the consent of US President Donald Trump, provided she does Washington’s bidding on access to Venezuelan oil and expanding democratic freedoms.
She has already started releasing political prisoners ahead of the pending amnesty. More than 400 people have been released so far, according to rights group Foro Penal, but many more are still behind bars.
Rodriguez also ordered the closure of the notorious Helicoide prison in Caracas, which has been denounced as a torture center by the opposition and activists.
Lawmakers voted last week in favor of the amnesty bill in the first of two debates.
The second debate on Thursday coincides with Youth Day in Venezuela, which is traditionally marked by protests.
Students from the Central University of Venezuela, one of the country’s largest schools and home to criticism of Chavismo, called for a rally on campus.
Venezuela’s ruling party also announced a march in the capital Caracas.
’We deserve peace’
Venezuela’s attorney general said Wednesday that the amnesty — which is meant to clear the rap sheets of hundreds of people jailed for challenging the Maduro regime — must apply to both opposition and government figures.
He urged the United States to release Maduro and his wife, both in detention in New York.
“We deserve peace, and everything should be debated through dialogue,” Attorney General Tarek William Saab told AFP in an interview.
Delcy Rodriguez’s brother Jorge Rodriguez, who presides over the National Assembly, said last week that the law’s approval would trigger the release of all political prisoners.
“Once this law is approved, they will all be released the very same day,” he told prisoners’ families outside the notorious Zona 7 detention center in Caracas.
’We are all afraid’
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa was one of the detainees granted early release.
But he was re-arrested less than 12 hours later and put under house arrest.
Authorities accused him of violating his parole after calling for elections during a visit to Helicoide prison, where he joined a demonstration with the families of political prisoners.
Guanipa is a close ally of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was in hiding for over a year before she fled the country to travel to Oslo to receive the award.
“We are all afraid, but we have to keep fighting so we can speak and live in peace,” Guanipa’s son told reporters outside his home in Maracaibo.
