Head of powerful CGT tells French president of trouble to come unless he cancels reform
The union leader heading protests against France’s bitterly contested pension reforms has accused Emmanuel Macron of playing with fire and showing contempt for the country’s workers.
Philippe Martinez, head of the powerful CGT, said the president and his government were “disconnected” from the real world, and their advisers needed to “shake the hands of a few who actually work”.
Continue reading...As a year of big EU decisions begins, the bloc’s most important relationship is stuck in a rut
In early December, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel sat down opposite each other in Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant at the Savoy Hotel, central London, for a two-hour tête-à-tête dinner. They had some talking to do.
Cordial and constructive, diplomats in Paris and Berlin said, the evening apparently cleared the air. But it will take more than a dinner to clear the structural obstacles to a relationship that is critical to what Europe can achieve in 2020.
Continue reading...French president to address 25-day strike and widespread protests in new year speech
Emmanuel Macron will be forced to speak out on France’s ongoing pensions strike in his televised new year address on Tuesday as transport stoppages look likely to continue into a fifth week, causing major disruption over the holiday period and into January.
The centrist French president, who made overhauling the country’s pensions system a key election pledge, has until now refrained from intervening personally, leaving his prime minister, Edouard Philippe, to deal with the day-to-day response to the crisis.
Continue reading...Striking French rail workers have clashed with riot police in Paris after holding a demonstration against pension changes despite Emmanuel Macron’s call for a Christmas truce. Hundreds of trade unionists and protesters gathered outside Gare de Lyon on Monday morning. The nationwide transport strikes have dragged on for a 19th day, causing what the state rail operator SNCF has described as 'ongoing severe disruption' to services
Continue reading...President gives up automatic pension given to French leaders as union standoff continues
Emmanuel Macron is to give up his own generous presidential pension in an attempt to calm anger over politicians’ privileges, as French transport strikes caused chaos for Christmas travellers.
With rail strikes continuing into their third week and travellers scrambling to get to home for the holidays, Macron, who turned 42 this weekend, made the symbolic move to become the first president in more than 50 years to give up the automatic pension of more than €6,000 a month that all French leaders receive after leaving office, regardless of age or wealth.
Continue reading...French president makes announcement on west Africa trip that has focused on jihadist threat in region
French forces have killed 33 Islamic extremists in central Mali, Emmanuel Macron has said.
The French president made the announcement on the second day of his three-day trip to west Africa, which has been dominated by the growing threat posed by jihadist groups.
Continue reading...As prelude to day of action, power to thousands of homes deliberately cut by workers
Police fired teargas and charged at demonstrators in central Paris as hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country staged a show of force against the government’s controversial pension reform plans.
The violence erupted at Place de la Nation, one of Paris’s biggest squares, as riot police attempted to disperse protesters. Police said they had charged after coming under a hail of paving stones and missiles. There were 27 arrests by late afternoon.
Continue reading...Medics say budget cuts have pushed health system to brink of collapse and put lives at risk
More than 600 French hospital doctors have threatened to resign if the government does not increase health funding, as striking medics prepare to take to the streets this week across the country.
The doctors warn that budget cuts, bed closures and staff shortages are bringing France’s health system to the brink of collapse and putting patients’ lives at risk.
Continue reading...Train and metro strikes enter fourth day as prime minister vows to implement changes
The French government said it would press ahead with its planned pension changes but said the proposed new system that has sparked nationwide strikes would be introduced gradually and public concerns would be addressed.
Transport systems were paralysed for a fourth day on Sunday as unions at the state railway SNCF and Paris public transport system RATP extended their strike against the changes.
Continue reading...Transport stoppages to run into weekend amid protests against planned pension changes
France is facing a second day of travel chaos and school closures after unions said there would be no let-up in nationwide strikes against Emmanuel Macron’s proposed changes to the pensions system.
The far-reaching strike, which brought more than 800,000 people on to the streets on Thursday, is seen as the greatest test yet for the centrist president, who has promised to deliver the biggest “transformation” of the French social model and welfare system since the immediate post-war era.
Continue reading...Rail workers, air-traffic controllers, teachers and public sector staff staged walkouts and took to the streets across France to protest against proposed changes to the pension system.
The strike is the biggest in Emmanuel Macron's presidency and 90% of regional trains were cancelled on 5 December
Continue reading...Transport workers bring country to standstill amid anger over pension changes
More than 800,000 people have marched in cities across France as railway workers, teachers and hospital staff held one of the biggest public sector strikes in decades against Emmanuel Macron’s plans to overhaul the pension system.
A nationwide transport strike brought much of France to a standstill and was expected to continue for the next few days as unions dug in, saying the president’s pension changes would force millions of people to work longer or receive lower payments.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has cut short his attendance at the Nato summit in London and accused Justin Trudeau of being 'two-faced' after the Canadian leader was heard apparently mocking the president's predilection for long, impromptu press conferences at a Nato reception at Buckingham Palace. 'He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top,' Trudeau could be heard saying, as other world leaders laughed. Boris Johnson, one of those present, denied they had been joking about Trump
Continue reading...Boris Johnson, Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron appear to be joking about Donald Trump at the opening of this week’s Nato summit in London along with other world leaders. In the video, Johnson asks Macron: 'Is that why you were late' before Trudeau interjects: 'He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top.'
Trump is never mentioned by name in the video, which was widely shared on social media, but the exchange could relate to the US president, who is known for his long, rambling press conferences
Continue reading...The French president has defended calling Nato 'brain dead' during the opening day of the alliance’s summit in London, after he was reproached by Donald Trump, who said the comment was 'insulting'. Macron’s original condemnation of Nato’s 'brain death' stemmed from his anger at the lack of Turkish cooperation with the rest of Nato over its decision to invade Syria
Continue reading...French president is rebuked by Trump over Nato criticism after row with Turkey about Kurds
Nato disunity was on full display on the opening day of the alliance’s summit in London as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, accused Turkey of colluding with Islamic State proxies while Donald Trump described Macron’s criticisms of Nato’s “brain death” as insulting and “very, very nasty”.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for his part threatened again to veto Nato’s defence plan for the Baltics unless Nato endorsed its own assessment that Syrian Kurdish fighters on Turkey’s borders were terrorists, a definition that Macron and the Pentagon rejected.
Continue reading...US president calls French leader’s comments ‘nasty’ and says Paris could leave alliance
Donald Trump has lashed out at Emmanuel Macron on the first morning of a two-day Nato meeting, saying the French president’s description of Nato as brain dead was insulting and a “very, very nasty statement”.
At a news conference alongside the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, the US president also accused Macron of trying to break away from Nato, as well as running a failing economy – while discarding the fact he himself has described Nato as obsolete on previous occasions.
Continue reading...French president says comments ‘a necessary wake-up call’ and criticises Turkey
Emmanuel Macron has said his claim this month that Nato was “brain-dead” was a necessary wake-up call before a summit in London next week at which he will urge members of the alliance to take a greater interest in its southern flank, including the fight against terrorism in the Sahel.
The French president defended his comments in Paris alongside the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who had previously warned Macron not to expect that a European defence formation could replace the Nato transatlantic structure.
Continue reading...Police forces fire teargas and water cannon against protesters in French capital
The gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement marked a year of weekend demonstrations with protests across France. In Paris, groups of black-clad youths caused damages at a central square, smashing bus shelters, a bank and torching vehicles.
Police responded by firing teargas and using water cannon against the protesters, only a few of whom were wearing the yellow vests affiliated with the movement. French media blamed “ultra radical” black bloc protesters for the violence.
Continue reading...French president says in interview that Europe is in danger of disappearing geopolitically
Emmanuel Macron has said Nato is in the throes of “brain death” and European countries can no longer rely on the US to defend its allies, drawing criticism from both the US and Germany.
“What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of Nato,” the French president told the Economist in an interview. “You have no coordination whatsoever of strategic decision-making between the United States and its Nato allies. None. You have an uncoordinated aggressive action by another Nato ally, Turkey, in an area where our interests are at stake.”
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