Free Republic

On Tuesday the pension reform legislation brought by National Assembly members from France's overseas territories gutted in committee. The provision to restore the retirement age to 62 taken out. The deciding votes came from the members of the committee who held the balance of power deputies from the old-guard "Right" Les Republicains... On Thursday the knife attack by a Syrian asylum seeker in Annecy became the focus of the media.., From Paris this afternoon the first live video of today's protest... Various causes represented in the crowd today one can never be sure who the real protesters are and who...

In committee last week a key provision of legislation proposed by the National Assembly lawmakers from France's overseas territories taken out. That was the part restoring France's retirement age to 62. When the full assembly take on the legislation next week there will be an effort to put it back in... This week President Emmanuel Macron forced to clarify comments of his Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne... Next Tuesday (June 6th) will be a nationwide day of strikes and protest against President Macron's imposition of pension reform... The First Live Video From Paris Today Of Yellow Vests Protest. A protester in...

This week Emmanuel Macron encountered various kinds of protests as he attempted to tour France and tout his concern for teachers (higher pay) and health care among other issues. But everywhere he went there was dissent ranging from the clanging of pots and pans to up close conversations challenging him regarding the issue that is unresolved. The issue of him imposition of pension reform without a National Assembly vote including the raising of the retirement age from 62 to 64. Other cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne greeted with the: "Concert de Casseroles" translated into English: "Concert of...

The president reacted to the concerts of saucepans that have accompanied each trip of ministers for a week. According to him, disagreements must be expressed "in a purely democratic and respectful framework." After a trip to Loir-et-Cher where demonstrators were again waiting for the president with pans to protest against the pension reform Emmanuel Macron judged that it was not a "great sign of democratic life." "I never thought that covering the voice of the other with sound with utensils was a wonderful sign of democratic life," the president said...

On Thursday as railroad workers staged a nationwide strike and protest opposing him, French President Emmanuel Macron tried to work on his unpopularity with a visit to a group of teachers. Macron promising pay increases... Pots and pans clanged across France Monday evening as Macron made his 'move on' speech seeking to change the subject from his imposition of pension reform without a legislative vote. Police banned such protests in a number of communities Monday night (Dijon, Marseille) and when Macron made his visit to the teachers on Thursday local authorities imposed a ban on all noise making activity around...

French President Emmanuel Macron made a brief speech at 8 pm tonight offering the people of France a host of issues beyond the pension reform issue he has alienated public opinion with. Macron spoke the environment, he spoke law and order even talked about illegal immigration but with 64 percent of public opinion now supporting continuation of the protests begun to oppose his imposition of pension reform without a legislative vote it came as no surprise that protests organized on short notice sprung up across France this evening. Thousands gathered in Paris clanging pots and pans... This was the pattern...

On Friday French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne meeting local union leaders in the town of Nevers. Next week she will receive national trade union leaders at her official residence in Paris (Hotel Matignon). The government trying to find some agreement with union leaders that keeps the retirement age raised to 64 as imposed by President Emmanuel Macron's use of his Article 49.3 powers. The government willing to talk about any and all issues beyond pension reform but union leaders at the national level unified. Ahead of the latest mass protests and strikes last Tuesday a government narrative that demonstrations were...

Normally French presidents do their TV interviews in prime time but Emmanuel Macron chose the mid-day news program for an interview on Wednesday in which he stood resolutely behind the pension reform plan he rammed through without a vote by legislators. In addition Macron pointed to the protests in the streets saying that union grievances should be listened to an responded to but that there are others militant and extreme. He said those kind of people protesting in the streets are like those who entered the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 or Brazilian government buildings on January 8th of...

Police fired tear gas and fought with violent black-clad anarchists in France on Thursday as more than a million mainly peaceful protesters marched against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the pension age. In a ninth day of nationwide protests, train and air travel was disrupted while teachers were among many professions to walk off the job, just days after the government pushed through legislation to raise the retirement age by two years to 64. In Bordeaux, photos showed the city’s town hall alight on Thursday evening. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the fire, which was...

17:14 14 people arrested in Paris... 17:10 SNCF traffic improves but remains disrupted Friday... 16:55 Fireworks launched by protesters against the police on the sidelines of the Parisian procession... 16:14 The CGT announces 800,000 people in Paris, a record... 15:44 A protester's thumb was torn off in Rouen... 15:39 Many anti-Macron slogans and placards in the Paris demonstration... 15:16 Normandy refinery: strikers still oppose requisitions... 14:40 Tensions in Nantes, the police use tear gas... 13:34 Some tensions in Rennes, the police use water cannon... 12:50 Marseille: 280,000 demonstrators according to the CGT....

Next Thursday (March 23rd) declared another day of strikes and protest in France but new strikes and protests already launched en masse following President Emmanuel Macron's pulling of the trigger on pension reform. Fearful that a majority would not endorse the change of the retirement age from 62 to 64 and the shuffling of benefits, Macron went for the nuclear option of using Article 49.3 of the French Constitution.... In Paris garbage workers have already been on strike for more than a week now and union leaders on Friday urged more trash collectors to go on strike across the country......

Although the plan to raise the pension age from 62 to 64 passed the upper house on Thursday, ministers realised they might not have the numbers in the lower house. Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne will now rely on a constitutional procedure. Article 49:3 enables the government to pass legislation without a vote.

The plans for tomorrow a vote in the Senate starting at 9 am and the National Assembly at 3 pm. At 815 am President Macron will receive members of the National Assembly and leaders of groups in the assembly to continue to promote the pension reform bill before the final votes. Following tonight's meeting with his Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers it's being reported that President Macron issued a threat in the meeting to dissolve the National Assembly if it rejects his pension reform plan. Mainstream media claiming tonight that Macron prefers not to force passage using Article 49.3....

Mass protests involved some 3.5 million people this last Tuesday according to union organizers, the government claiming a smaller number 1.28 million. It was a day of strike action a shutdown day in France with oil refineries, airports, railroads and schools impacted. The strongest signs yet of mass opposition to the "pension reform' proposed by President Emmanuel Macron... The mainstream media in France broaching the notion that President Macron may have to use the "nuclear option" of Article 49.3 to push through the pension overhaul. That constitutional provision gives a French President the ability to pass legislation without approval of...

The Thursday strike and protests against President Emmanuel Macron's "Pension Reform" leading to more than two million participants according to organizers. The government's estimate 1.12 million. A call for a another national strike and protest on January 31st and for smaller strike actions to begin Monday. Today the "Left" in France led by its political leader Jean-Luc Melenchon will hold a protest march to oppose the Macron pension plan. The march spearheaded by youth groups. Protesters are gathered in Paris this afternoon opposing COVID policy and dressed in Yellow Vests... The Left protest against the "pension reform" came later in...

On Saturday, February 12, Freedom Initiative Now hosted a GOP Gubernatorial Town Hall, featuring four of the announced Republican candidates for Governor of Illinois, with a couple hundred activists in attendance at the Embassy Suites in Naperville. State Senator Darren Bailey, former State Senator Paul Schimpf, businessman Gary Rabine, and attorney Max Solomon were seated on the dais. Three other candidates believed to be in the running - Chris Roper (who at some point had accepted), Jesse Sullivan and Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin – were not in attendance. Co-hosts Nick Richmond and Kelly Dittmann kept their introduction to a minimum,...

Who has taken the economic risk to loan money to cities and states? (Bondholders) Who took the risk of working for a city or state with the promise of an unrealistic pension? (State and municipal employees) Who is going to pay for underfunded state and municipal pensions, overstaffed state governments and crazy governmental expenditures (think bullet train in California)? Which citizens elected city and state officials who approved and then underfunded pensions, overstaffed governments and approved crazy governmental expenses? Which of those governmental agencies were 100 percent unprepared for any emergency? These are rhetorical questions. The financial costs associated with...

After police came into his home, officers handcuffed him for six hours as they collected his equipment. The search warrant for his home said officers were investigating “stolen or embezzled” property. It was unclear whether he was handcuffed because of the guns he says he legally owns. Carmody said the guns were locked in a safe, and he said that over the hours-long search, it was evident officers didn’t view him as a threat. At one point, some police took off their bulletproof vests on account of the heat, he said. While he was shackled, officers got a second warrant...

Bryan Carmody, a freelance reporter in San Francisco, awoke Friday to the sounds of someone trying to break into his house.

More bad news for Chicago (and Illinois) taxpayers arrived Friday morning in a 35-page, double-sided packet. On one of the last pages: "The entire Act is void." Cook County Circuit Court Judge Rita Novak tossed out Chicago's pension reform law. City Hall had negotiated the pension changes for municipal and labor employees with many of the city's unions on board. But Novak, using the Illinois Supreme Court's May pension opinion as her sword, ruled that the city's plan violates the Illinois Constitution: A public worker's pension is a contract that cannot be "diminished or impaired." lRelated Revenge of the pension...