France Retirement age protests raise Le Pen's popularity at Macron's expense

A new poll showed a significant decline in the popularity of French President Emmanuel Macron following protests against the law to raise the retirement age, while the French "National Rally" party led by right-wing Marine Le Pen was the biggest beneficiary of popular discontent over the law.

The newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche reported that the French National Rally party, led by the right-wing Marine Le Pen, is the biggest beneficiary of widespread popular discontent with French President Emmanuel Macron, whose popularity has declined significantly, coinciding with his government's efforts to pass a law to raise the retirement age, according to an opinion poll. New to the newspaper.

And 26% of a total of 1094 people polled during the period between March 20 and 21 said that they would support the candidates of the National Rally party led by Le Pen, with a rise of five points higher compared to a previous poll that was completed last November, in contrast to the decline of Macron's supporters to unsatisfactory levels. preceded.

Protests against Macron's plans to extend the retirement age have escalated for weeks, becoming more violent after his government passed the legislation in parliament without a vote last week, lacking a clear majority.

During the period when the government sought to pass the retirement bill without a vote in parliament, protests against the bill, which extends the retirement age by two years to 64, gathered large, peaceful crowds at rallies organized by trade unions.

Opinion polls showed that a large majority of voters oppose the pension bill. Voters were furious after the government's decision to bypass the vote in Parliament and Macron's comparison of the protests to the storming of the US Congress building on January 6, 2021.

The latest wave of protests and clashes has become the most serious challenge to Macron's authority since the "yellow vest" revolution carried out by the angry working class four years ago.

Random protests in Paris and elsewhere have seen rubbish bins set on fire and barricades erected every night, amid clashes with police.

The results of the poll, Le Journal du Dimanche, showed that Le Pen's party won the support of new voters who do not have political affiliations, as nearly a third of them said that they would vote for the National Rally candidates in the upcoming legislative elections.

In the first round of the last legislative elections last June, Macron's "Republic on the Move" party (later renamed Ennahda Party) won 26.9% of the vote, ahead of the "New Environmental and Social People's Union" party led by Jean-Luc Melenchon by 26.3%. %, then Le Pen's party came third with 19.2%.

Government spokesman Olivier Ferrand, in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, acknowledged that the protesters were angry and should be heard.

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron strongly condemned the violence that erupted in Thursday's protests against raising the retirement age in France, and said he would not acquiesce in it.

"We will not acquiesce in violence," Macron said at a press conference following the EU summit in Brussels on Friday. "I condemn violence with the utmost force."