Thanks guys. Yeah, the protest are getting crazy.But don't worry, I'm all good, the protest are in the large cities, I'm not in a big city, I'm in a small town, 15 miles west from Paris.
Macron wants to push back the retirement age from 62 to 64. But about 70% of people don't want that. There's an article in the consitution that allows the government to pass a law without the parliament voting on it but if the government uses it, it sets a vote on weether the government can stay or not. Knowing that this retirement bill wouldn't pass on on normal vote, Macron used that article, knowing that the different opposing parties would refuse to vote together so the government would stay. That's exactly what happened.
But now, instead of blaming the opposition parties for failing to work together, they're blaming Macron for using that article, they say it was anti-democratic.
Macron thought the protest would calm down now that the bill has been passed, that the people would get tired of having no public transportation, garbage in the streets, no oil at the filling stations, etc. But that's no what's happening, despite all that, people are still routing for the protestors
Now Macron doesn't to cancel his bill 'cause that would make him look weak so he's trying to convince the union to negociate about how to modify it but the unions say "non, first you cancel that bill, then we'll talk..."
A week ago Macron was on TV to try to calm things down but al he said was basically "the bill's passed, I won't cancel it, no go back hom, go back to wor It's over, move along" which, obviously, made people even more angry.