Paris Soir - Macron protesters held in fresh unrest on Dutch visit

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Macron protesters held in fresh unrest on Dutch visit

POLITICS 12.04.2023

Macron protesters held in fresh unrest on Dutch visit / Photo: Ramon van Flymen - ANP/AFP

Dutch police detained two protesters who ran towards French President Emmanuel Macron in Amsterdam on Wednesday as his domestic troubles intruded once again on his state visit.

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The dramatic arrests outside Amsterdam University came a day after demonstrators against Macron's controversial pension reforms heckled him during a speech in The Hague.

The pomp of the first state visit to the Netherlands by a French president in 23 years has given Macron little respite from a wave of protests at home against increasing the French pension age from 62 to 64.

"For the honour of the workers and a better world -- even if Macron doesn't like it, we are here," one protester chanted, using the words of a French protest song, as he was pinned down by several security officials in Amsterdam.

The man ran towards Macron and was tackled to the ground, knocking over a man in uniform and landing in a heap of people, pool television and social media images showed.

The incident happened just after the French president had stepped out of a limousine with Dutch King Willem-Alexander and was being greeted by Amsterdam's mayor.

- 'Accept controversy' -

"We arrested two protesters for running towards the president. For disturbing public order and threatening," Amsterdam police spokesperson Lex van Liebergen told AFP.

A man and a woman were arrested, one with a banner, she added.

Around 40 people protested when Macron left the university's science faculty.

He then signed a "pact for innovation" with the Netherlands focusing on cooperation in semiconductors, quantum physics and energy.

Macron later said reforms inevitably caused protests, citing recent rallies by Dutch farmers against environmental plans.

"We must sometimes accept controversy, and we must try to build a path for the future," he told an audience of French people living in the Netherlands.

In The Hague on Tuesday, protesters had shouted, "Where is French democracy?" and unfurled a banner saying "President of Violence and Hypocrisy" as Macron gave a speech on European sovereignty.

The French president is separately facing controversy over comments he made about Taiwan in an interview published over the weekend.

He is expected to face questions on the issue at a press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte later Wednesday.

- 'Reliable' ally -

Macron told media including Politico and French business daily Les Echos that Europe should not be "followers" of the United States or China when it came to Taiwan.

A French diplomatic source insisted that Paris remained a "reliable" ally of Washington despite the comments but an ally that "decides for itself".

"We are not followers of the United States for a simple reason, which is that the president wants European sovereignty," the source said.

Macron's interview drew praise as "brilliant" in China -- which rejects US support of what it sees as a breakaway province -- but raised eyebrows among Western allies.

Former president Donald Trump said that "Macron, who's a friend of mine, is over with China, kissing his ass".

Macron's state visit wraps up late Wednesday after a trip to Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum and talks with Rutte on a canal boat.