The French pension protests

French President Emmanuel Macron. Yoan Valat / AP  

The French pension protests  

Crisis of confidence for Macron - approaching bottom numbers  

Confidence in French President Emmanuel Macron is approaching rock bottom in the wake of the controversial pension reform process, writes AFP. New figures from the measurement institute Odoxa show that only 30 percent of the French believe that Macron is a good president, while 70 percent have a negative image of him.  

The numbers are only marginally higher than at the end of 2018 when France was paralyzed by the Yellow Vests movement demonstrations.  

According to the survey, the entire political establishment seems to have been affected by the crisis of confidence. For example, the numbers are also falling for far-right leader Marine Le Pen and for the normally popular Edouard Philippe, who was previously Macron's prime minister.  

Railway employees demonstrate. Thomas Padilla / AP  

The French pension protests 

The government warns of violence: "They want to kill and injure"  

In France, protesters have once again gathered to protest President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform. The government has warned that the protests could turn violent, AP reports.  

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin says that a thousand radical violent perpetrators, some of whom come from abroad, are expected to participate in the protests. 

- They come to destroy, injure and kill police officers. It has nothing to do with the pension reform. Their goal is to destabilize the institutions of our republic, he says.  

Darmanin also states that 13,000 extra police have been deployed, half of them in Paris.