MUTTERSHOLTZ, France (Reuters) – Protesters angry at changes to France’s pension system greeted President Emmanuel Macron with boos, banners and banging on pans when he visited a factory in the east of the country on Wednesday.
Macron shrugged off the display of discontent, saying: “Pans won’t help France to move on”.
His appearance in Muttersholtz was his first public foray outside the capital since he signed into law an unpopular rise in the retirement age which means citizens must work two years longer before receiving their state pension.
He said it was not possible for a society to listen only to those who “make the most noise” as he sought to highlight positive aspects of France’s labour leglislation.
The protesters waited for Macron outside the factory he was visiting in the eastern Alsace region.
Electrical power at the factory was also cut briefly, French media reports said. Asked if the hardline CGT union was behind the cuts, a union representative declined to comment.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau and Tassilo Hummel, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
