In the press - Pension reform: "Emmanuel Macron, the great tisonnier"

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On the front page of the press, this Thursday, March 23, the reactions to the intervention, yesterday, of President Emmanuel Macron, which excludes any retreat on the pension reform

Faced with the protest, the French president remains straight in his boots and hammers that this reform is "necessary". Emmanuel Macron "assumes everything" and his attitude reminds Le Parisien/Aujourd'hui en France that of the late Margaret Thatcher, whose methods "had fractured (the United Kingdom) and torpedoed popularity" - a strategy that the newspaper is careful not to judge. Emmanuel Macron "assumes everything", "maintains everything" and seeks more to "reassure his electoral base" than to "convince the French", according to L'Opinion, where Kak's drawing shows him addressing his compatriots: "If you think it makes me happy to reform". "He's pissing off at work too," one viewer commented.

In the headlines this morning:

🔴 Reform, government... Macron maintains everything

🔴 Emmanuel Macron pulls out the legislative

🔴 slicer Trade unions: Emmanuel Macron reaches out and makes crooked feet

👇 pic.twitter.com/MiaJ7UyGpX

— L'Opinion (@lopinion_fr) March 23, 2023

What is not in doubt is that the president has not at all convinced the unions, who are calling for a ninth day of mobilization on March 23, and not convinced Le Figaro either. "As expected, the president has done nothing. As expected, between the opponents of the reform and the executive, the face-to-face confrontation continues. And, as expected, the exit door, necessarily narrow, remains to be found." As for the newspaper Libération, it bluntly accuses the president of throwing oil on the fire - hence the play on the front page: "The great tisonnier", in reference, of course, to the Great Helmsman, Mao Zedong.

On the front page of @Libe this Thursday: The great tisonnier 🔥

Read:
https://t.co/nj2k4mQWWP pic.twitter.com/lW2aTC0II4

— Libération (@libe) March 22, 2023

Emmanuel Macron's intervention is also on the front page of the foreign press. In the United States, The Washington Post highlights the "provocative tone" of this intervention and notes the comparison made by the president between the storming of the Capitol and the demonstrations in France. "Circulate, there is nothing more to see": for the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, "Emmanuel Macron tried, yesterday, to straddle the explosive sequence of the pension reform", a "strategy of the round back", considered "risky", while "the adoption of the law, with institutional forceps, has not put an end to social anger".

For the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, the "real danger" is not however in the street but in the ballot boxes, where would loom "a catastrophic presidential duel for the France" between Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and Marine Le Pen. "Looking too much at burning garbage cans risks forgetting the real risk of fire. Maybe it's even being stoked," the newspaper warned.

EDITORIAL. Blockades and thugs can give the impression that the France is close to insurrection. This is not the case, the historical danger is more distant at the level of the next elections https://t.co/JR7gxK26II

— Le Temps (@LeTemps) March 22, 2023

In the United Kingdom, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson had to account yesterday for Partygate, the parties during the lockdown in Downing Street. In front of Parliament, the former Prime Minister was still as combative, swearing "hand on heart", that no, he had never lied "deliberately" about the sauteries watered during confinement. "Boris Johnson is fighting for his political survival," comments The Times. "BoJo", who does not seem to have convinced, either, his compatriots. The tabloids are going wild. "Yes but no but yes but no," jokes The Daily Star, which adorns the former head of government with the nose of Pinocchio the liar. The Daily Mirror is not angry. "Just a few drinks after a hard day? During the lockdown, lots of people had difficult days," the tabloid said, under a photo of caregivers working with a sick person. In the United Kingdom, the Covid-19 pandemic has claimed more than 150,000 lives.

Thursday's front page: Johnson's party apologies #TomorrowsPapersTodayhttps://t.co/SCahVPvqe6 pic.twitter.com/6E9R1IBxS9

— The Mirror (@DailyMirror) March 22, 2023

In the press, too, the many rallies that took place on Tuesday in Turkish Kurdistan, on the occasion of the Kurdish New Year. After the deadly earthquake of 6 February and in the run-up to an election that could bring down President Recep Tayyep Erdogan, the region is "on hot coals", according to Libération, whose special envoy went to Dyarbakir, which is considered the "capital" of Turkish Kurdistan. Dyarbakir, where the hope of Erdogan departure is mixed with bitterness. "If the money from the war [against the Kurds] had been invested in the construction sector, we would not be here, counting our dead," said one resident.

Bitterness, too, of the Kurds of Iraq, as evidenced this time by Foreign Policy. The American website reports on the divisions between the KDP, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the PUK, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Quarrels that still paralyse Parliament, while the economic crisis is hitting the Kurds of Iraq hard - whose Foreign Policy recalls the "many sacrifices over the last 20 years in the fight against dictatorship and extremism".

As Iraqi Kurdistan faces a crisis of democratic legitimacy, the West must hold leaders accountable for corruption and human rights abuses, @wrodgers2 writes. https://t.co/pcXycUCApK

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) March 22, 2023

In Iranian Kurdistan, asphyxiated by Tehran, the situation is even more difficult, according to Mediapart's major report on how many Kurds are trying to survive by risking their lives by becoming "kolbars", illegal carriers of goods through the mountains. "Every year, dozens of these 'kolbars' die in accidents or under the bullets of the Iranian military."

We do not leave each other on that. Before I say to you tomorrow, I suggest you take a look at Courrier International, which reports that a gang of badgers is currently disrupting rail traffic in the south of the Netherlands. These mustelids are accused of digging burrows under a railway line, and the problem is that their protected status prevents the necessary work from being undertaken.

From badgers to lovebirds. In the press too, this morning, the beautiful story of Len and Jeanette. These two Britons, who fell in love as teenagers in 1963, and whose parents had forced them to break off their engagement, had to wait 60 years before they could get married. The Times reports that one day in 2015, Len showed up unexpectedly at Jeanette's door, who not only hadn't forgotten him, but kept her engagement ring on. They married last month, in the presence of their children and grandchildren.

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