![\"French](\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/articles\/stories\/07\/52\/62\/84\/320x180_cmsv2_406945b3-59a2-5b73-8f57-544d42d26d7c-7526284.jpg\" "\\"French")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron, right, looks at demonstrators unfolding a banner reading ‘President of Violence and Hypocrisy’.<\/em> – Copyright AP Photo<\/p>\n\n\n\n By Euronews <\/strong> with AP, AFP<\/strong> \u2022 11\/04\/2023 – 21:40<\/p>\n\n\n\n A group of protesters interrupted French President Emmanuel Macron as he prepared to deliver a speech on the future of Europe in The Hague on Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some members of the audience at a theatre in the Netherlands shouted at Macron, accusing him of undemocratically forcing through his plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Macron\u2019s pension reforms have prompted massive protests and strikes in France. Critics were additionally angered when he used a special constitutional power last month to push the bill through parliament without a vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Where is French democracy?” young protesters shouted from the gallery of the theatre, while others unfurled unfurling a banner that read “President of violence and hypocrisy” in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI can answer these questions if you give me some time,\u201d Macron responded. The protesters were quickly removed from the hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n about:blank<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s \u201cvery important to have this type of discussion,\u201d Macron said. \u201cThe day you consider that \u2018when I disagree … I\u2019m the one to decide\u2019 … you put democracy at risk,\u201d he added, citing the examples of rioters storming the US Capitol in 2021 and Brazil\u2019s top government buildings earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Around 30 young French people also meet the French president at the exit of the theatre. They chanted: “Macron we are here … Even if Macron does not want it, we are here.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his scripted speech, Macron outlined his vision for the future of European sovereignty, saying it should be based on the five pillars of competitiveness, industrial policy, protectionism, reciprocity and cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine \u201copened probably one of the most perilous times of our European Union. Our union is said to grow stronger through the crisis but never had we faced such a threat,\u201d Macron said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The COVID-19 pandemic and the war \u201cwere big accelerators of this European sovereignty,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can set up a new economic doctrine which will allow us to reconcile creating jobs, financing our social model, dealing with climate change and being more sovereign and deciding for ourselves,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is critical in this period when we have war and our economy is being weaponized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The speech came after Macron raised eyebrows with his comments on Taiwan after his recent visit to China last week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe question we need to answer, as Europeans, is the following: Is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No,\u201d Macron was quoted as saying in an interview published Sunday in the French newspaper Les Echos<\/em> and by Politico Europe.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the US agenda and a Chinese overreaction.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The remarks raised questions about whether Macron\u2019s views are in line with the European Union\u2019s position on China and Taiwan and whether the bloc is able to become the \u201cthird superpower\u201d that Macron says he hopes to build within \u201ca few years.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The interview was given before China launched large-scale combat exercises around Taiwan that simulated sealing off the island in response to its president\u2019s trip to the US last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pension protesters disrupt Macron\u2019s speech on future of ‘European sovereignty\u2019 COMMENTS French President Emmanuel Macron, right, looks at demonstrators unfolding<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-90"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13642,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13640\/revisions\/13642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daric-persian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"AP](\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/articles\/stories\/07\/52\/62\/68\/808x454_cmsv2_c9030f4e-2a73-50c0-91da-a8ac9169936a-7526268.jpg\")
Macron’s vision for European sovereignty<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"AP](\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/articles\/stories\/07\/52\/62\/68\/808x454_cmsv2_42aa6858-068e-5990-a4ea-6cf0115a9d46-7526268.jpg\")
Macron’s comments on China and Taiwan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n