The EconomistApril 14th 2018 45For daily analysis and debate on Europe, visit
Economist.com/europe1I
N THE western city of Nantes, protesters
burned an effigy of the president. On the
university campus of Nanterre, riot police
had to break up a sit-in. Across the country,
railwaymen this week entered the third
round of rolling strikes. As France ap-
proaches the 50th anniversary of the upris-
ing of May 1968, it seems once again to be
caught up in a wave of defiant rebellion.
The French may have elected a young
leader, Emmanuel Macron, who promised
change. But nearly a year later it appears
that they have already had enough.
The sources of discontent are various.
Railway workers, orcheminots, are on
strike against a reorganisation of the SNCF,
the national railway, which would put an
end to jobs-for-life for new recruits. Air
France pilots have grounded planes over a
pay dispute. Retirees are unhappy because
they face higher social charges on their
pensions. Students are protesting against a
new application process, which gives uni-
versities more sayover the undergraduates
they take (currently, they cannot select at
entry on academic grounds).
These conflicts are mostly unconnect-
ed. But the overall impression is one of cha-
os. Spring in France is protest season, and
manifs (demos) sprout in the warmer
weather like crocuses. It is a measure of
how seriously he takes the revolt that Mr
Macron, who thinks the French president
should take a “Jupiterian” approach to
power and remain above the daily grind,
agreed unusually this week to two live tele-that, as the realityof such changes sinks in,
disgruntlement has spread.
The current conflict could yet harden,
and drag on. Yet it would be a mistake to
conclude that France is merely stuck on the
same old track. Over the past 11 months,
one of the most surprising features of the
new government has been its ability to
push through a raft of reforms with a mini-
mum of fuss.
Last September Mr Macron liberalised
the labour market and simplified redun-
dancy rules, without protracted protests.
More recently hislabour minister, Muriel
Pénicaud, tore up a soft deal agreed be-
tween unions and bosses over reform of
France’s inefficient publicly mandated
training schemes and imposed her own
more radical scheme, prompting little
more than a whimper. The government
has ended the wealth tax, and put a flat tax
on financial income. Bruno Le Maire, the fi-
nance minister, now forecasts a govern-
ment budget surplus by 2022, which
would be the first for France since 1974.
A broader set of policies has also slid
through. Last summer parliamentary rules
on employing relatives were tightened. Mr
Macron now wants to shrink the number
of deputies in the National Assembly from
577 to 404. An ambitious overhaul of the
treasured school-leaving baccalauréat
exam is under way, as are negotiations
over phasing out jobs-for-life in the civil
service. Class sizes were halved for five- to
six-year-olds in tough schools in time for
the start of the current academic year.
“Macron has delivered far more than I ex-
pected,” says Jacques Delpla, an economist
at the Toulouse School of Economics, who
judges the SNCF restructuring the key to
unlocking further reform.
Mr Macron has been helped by a big
parliamentary majority, and an opposi-
tion enfeebled by his new party’s rise. By
laying out his plans during the campaign,vised interviews. One was for a lunchtime
news programme, popular with provincial
viewers and pensioners.
Up to a point, Mr Macron is indeed fac-
ing the most demanding, and symbolic,
test of his reformist resolve. The reorgani-
sation of the SNCF is designed to prepare
(though will not privatise) the railways for
upcoming competition under previously
approved European rules. The railway-
men, some of whom can still retire at the
age of 50, know thatsuch perks cannot last.
Mr Macron was elected on a promise to
unify the disparate rules governing French
public pensions, and this reform lies
ahead. Pensioners too knew that he would
raise their contributions, to compensate
for his decision to lower social charges on
people in work. It is scarcely surprisingFranceLa République en grève
PARIS
Emmanuel Macron’s presidency hinges on how he handles a wave of strikesEurope
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49 Charlemagne: The perky PortugueseBoom and bust?Source: Kantar TNSFrance, confidence in President Macron
% polledJJASOND
2017JFMA
201830354045505560ConfidenceNo confidence