French union leaders and opposition politicians on Wednesday reacted with outrage to a televised interview with President Emmanuel Macron in which he discussed planned pension reforms recently forced through government.
In an interview broadcast on national television channels TF1 and France 2, Macron defiantly vowed to push through the deeply unpopular pensions reform.
The president said he was prepared to accept unpopularity in the face of sometimes violent protests across France.
>> Hundreds arrested as French protests continue after government survives no-confidence vote
Aides said the televised discussion was aimed at "calming things down", as weeks of strikes against the reforms show little sign of abating, but initial reactions showed it might have quite the opposite effect.
"Lies!" the moderate, reform-minded Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT, France's largest union, tweeted, accusing Macron of "rewriting history" after he said unions had not offered an alternative to his pension bill.
Philippe Martinez, who leads the more hardline CGT union, told French media that Macron was mocking workers with what he called an "outlandish" interview.
The union leader said the interview showcased the French President's "hypocrisy", adding that Macron's comments showed "disdain for the millions of people who have been protesting".
Opposition politicians were also quick to criticise the president.
LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon also accused Macron of telling lies about pension reform in the interview and showing “typical contempt for the workers and the demonstrations”.
Macron “lives outside all reality", the far-left leader said at a press conference in Toulouse on Wednesday.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right in parliament, said Macron had merely "reinforced the feeling of contempt" felt by the French
The secretary of France’s Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, warned of a fierce reaction to the televised interview from the French public, saying Macron had “put even more explosives on an inferno that is already ablaze”.
“It’s astonishing. He is in absolute denial,” Faure said from outside France’s National Assembly.
(FRANCE with AFP, REUTERS)
