The Head of State, welcomed at each field visit by a concert of pots and whistles since the adoption of the pension reform, was able to show this time that he could also go smoothly in contact with the French, even if some exchanges were lively and direct.
"And also to be able to deal with anger, but to do it in an artificially unorganized way," he justified, judging "useless" trips "where everything is arranged because it goes too well and those where everything is arranged because it goes too badly".
Rising prices, difficult ends of the month, small pensions dominated exchanges, sometimes with more personal piques.
"Everything is expensive. There are people who are starving," said a passer-by, adding: "free housing company car, we do not all have that huh".
President Emmanuel Macron speaks with a resident at a market in Dole, on April 27, 2023 in the Jura © Christophe PETIT TESSON / POOL / AFP
One shopkeeper complained that she was "retired and working anyway". Another lady adds: "we do not live on 1,000 euros a month".
"For 1,200 euros, I don't get up at 4am," says a passer-by. Another is angry about the bosses of mass distribution: "When are we going to stop allowing these people to give a fuck their pockets," he says. "It shocks everyone. It also shocks me," Macron admitted in return, pinning "gaps" such that "they can no longer be explained to people".
Emmanuel Macron recalled the tax cuts, the abolition of the housing tax, energy checks or the increase in small pensions with his highly contested pension reform.
The charges, "we have not stopped lightening them I have already been yelled at there," he argued. "Now we have to recreate a salary dynamic... It's not the government that can do it," he pleaded, throwing the ball back into the court of social dialogue.
President Emmanuel Macron (c) meets with residents at a market in Dole, on April 27, 2023 in the Jura © Christophe PETIT TESSON / POOL / AFP
A former local representative of the yellow vests, Fabrice Schlegel, also strongly challenged him on the "colossal deficit", the "public spending", accusing him of having "killed the hospital function, local medicine" and saying "a lot of nonsense". "You have been smoking us for five years," he charged.
"You're still a funny guy ... You are asking me for more spending actually," replied the president, disputing the figures aligned by his interlocutor.
At the same time, between 200 and 300 demonstrators were waiting for Mr. Macron near Pontarlier, held at the cost of some jostling by a cordon of gendarmerie more than a kilometer from the place of the speech, according to AFP journalists.
A mask to Emmanuel Macron and a pan on the asphalt during a demonstration near the castle of Joux before a visit of the president, on April 27, 2023 in La Cluse-et-Mijoux, in the Doubs © SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP
"They block people, it discourages people from coming on foot, I think that's the goal," said Pascal Maillard, 62, a retiree from Enedis. "We've never seen a president who protects himself in this way, and who despises us so much," he squeaked.
A pot in hand, Celine, 51 years old and primary school teacher, explains: "I came because I am against the pension reform, which will penalize women in particular. I had to walk 40 minutes to get here. This device (...) is excessive: we are not terrorists, we just want to be heard," she laments.
© 2023 AFP