LA CLUSE-ET-MIJOUX, France — Stretching out across a highway so no cars could pass, some 100 protesters banged pans in a deafening crash that echoed across this remote eastern French valley in April.
Suddenly, a helicopter carrying President Emmanuel Macron appeared overhead. The boisterous protesters did not prevent the French leader from visiting a nearby castle, but the scene was a deafening reminder of the fury that has plagued his government since it enacted a highly unpopular pension reform this spring which raised the legal retirement age from 62 to 64.
for weeks, opponents of the change have been harassing Macron and members of his cabinet by banging pots and pans on their official trips. The protests, known as “casserolades”, have disrupted or prevented dozens of visits by Ministers to schools and factories.
Banging pans has become a symbol of widespread discontent after months of huge street demonstrations failed to pressure the government to roll back pension changes.
“We are not being heard” said Christian Salmon, a French essayist and columnist for the online publication Slate. “So now we have only one option left, which is not to listen to you either.”
The casserolades began in April during a televised speech by Macron that was intended as a way to turn the page on pensions. Determined to continue the fight, protesters gathered outside town halls across France to bang on pots and pans.. In Paris, many residents joined in from their apartment windows, filling entire neighborhoods with metallic notes.
In a short time, the members of the Government were received by a cacophony of kitchen utensils throughout the country.
“We want to show them that we are not going to give up,” said Nicole Draganovic, banging a saucepan on the road in La Cluse-et-Mijoux.
“It’s like a symphony,” he added.
Macron has been visibly upset by the banging of the pans.
Many Ministers now announce their travel plans at the last minute for fear of being surprised by people banging pans. And police once confiscated protesters’ pots and pans after local authorities banned “the use of portable sound devices.”
At a May Day protest, Stéphanie Allume, 55, said she sees a broad meaning behind the pots, including the fight to put food on the table.
“When it is no longer possible to dialogue with our government, we drown out their voices with the noise of our pans,” he said.
By: CONSTANT MEHEUT
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6729337, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-05-24 23:00:07
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