Demonstrators have taken to the streets every night since the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister decided Thursday to use 49.3 to adopt this text, engaging the responsibility of the government on this flagship reform of the second five-year Macron.

And, even if Elisabeth Borne is not spared, the person of the head of state is particularly targeted.

"Macron we can start again! Louis XVI, Louis XVI we beheaded him!" chanted young people in Paris and Toulouse.

A head with his effigy was also brandished at the end of a wooden handle in a rally in Châteauroux in early March.

"Since the Yellow Vests, he has crystallized a lot of rancor and hatred on his person," says Anne Muxel, director of research at Sciences-Po.

In December 2018, the head of state was booed and insulted in Le Puy-en-Velay as he left a prefecture set on fire by protesters. "Die!" said a woman as the procession passed.

A year later, a representation of Emmanuel Macron at the end of a pike had aroused the indignation of the former Keeper of the Seals Robert Badinter.

'A divisive president'

This young, willingly brave president, from the ENA and the banking world, quickly embodied arrogance in the eyes of his detractors.

"It's inherent in his person, he's a divisive president, adored or hated. And otherwise he would not have been president," concedes an executive of the presidential camp.

With the Covid crisis in 2020, "anger has taken a back seat, not mistrust. There is again this feeling of the French not to be heard, listened to, "continues Anne Muxel.

"Whatever crises he has faced, there is a communication problem. He never gets messages across," she adds.

During an anti-government demonstration called by the "Yellow Vests" movement in Paris, March 23, 2019 © KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP/Archives

The Yellow Vest movement, born spontaneously to protest against the increase in a fuel tax, had led to blockades of roads and roundabouts and massive rallies every Saturday, punctuated by violence.

"Above ground"

Obviously, the current crisis "is based on the same mistrust, extremely deep, towards political institutions, including local ones," notes Luc Rouban, director of research at the CNRS.

The vindictiveness also extends to MPs who said they were ready to vote for the pension reform and some of whom saw their permanence tagged or stoned.

By opting for 49.3, the executive gives "the image of an isolated, minority power, which expedites parliamentary work" and "launches policies above ground (far) from the reality of the life of the French," observes Luc Rouban.

As with the Yellow Vests, this spontaneous anger is also fueled by fears weighing on purchasing power. It remains to be seen whether it will be installed in the long term, whether the law is definitively adopted on Monday or not, at the end of the examination of the motions of censure against the Borne government.

After rallies very supervised by the unions in recent weeks, "the mobilization will be reduced, the days will be spaced out and we will find ourselves every Saturday with yellow vests," predicts a union official, who does not exclude "several months of Saturdays messed up until the summer".

This young, willingly brave president, from the ENA and the banking world, quickly embodied arrogance in the eyes of his detractors. In Paris on April 21, 2022 © JOEL SAGET / AFP/Archives

On the government side, we expect rather one-off radicalized movements, which will turn public opinion and extinguish themselves.

"People are still aware that we are in an inflationary, economic, perhaps financial crisis, and that at some point we need responsibility," said a government adviser.

© 2023 AFP