Post-election clash in Paris
Police and demonstrators clashed in Paris yesterday in response to the election of new president Emmanuel Macron (above left, with predeccesor Francois Hollande).
POLICE and demonstrators clashed in central Paris yesterday in a predictable response to the election of Emmanuel Macron as the republic’s new president.
Among the Left-wing and union activists brawling with police in the Place de la Republique were several people who voted for Mr Macron but are opposed to his labour market reforms, including allowing more flexibility for people to work overtime on top of the 35-hour working week.
While tear gas was used to break up the demonstration and scuffles broke out between police and demonstrators, the protest followed the usual theatre of such confrontations at the Place de la Republique and no one was seriously injured.
The president-elect avoided the drama by joining the man he is replacing in the Elysee Palace, Socialist President Francois Hollande, to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Arc de Triomphe.
Mr Macron will be inaugurated on Sunday but has already begun facing up to the enormous challenge of trying to win enough seats in next month’s assembly elections to form a working majority.
He also changed the name of his political movement En Marche! to En Marche la Republique (Republic on the Move) and began transforming into a more orthodox political party, at least in terms of structure.
His party chief, Richard Ferrand, said the names of En Marche la Republique’s 577 candidates in the parliament elections would be revealed on Thursday.
Mr Macron’s defeated rival, the National Front’s Marine Le Pen, also revealed plans to change her party’s name, as she too turned her attention to the June 11 and 18 elections, where a new 577-seat National Assembly will be elected.
Ms Le Pen is a member of the European Parliament and has only two deputies in the French Parliament, which is two more than Mr Macron has.
She again declared herself the official opposition party in France, having picked up 11 million votes, despite being soundly defeated.