The Loir-et-Cher department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France banned demonstrations and gatherings on the day of the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron. However, people still protested and occupied the railway tracks, Report informs via local media.
Macron traveled to French regions for the third time after the final adoption of the pension reform. This time he is visiting a hospital in the commune of Vendôme in the Loir-et-Cher department, accompanied by the Minister of Health, François Bron.
Despite the authorities' ban, several hundred people brought pots and spoons and started making noise. Some of the demonstrators occupied the railroad tracks at the station of the commune. The police were forced to push back the protesters.
The local authorities also brought a mobile power generator to the hospital visited by Macron in case the trade unions again decide to turn off the electricity in the building, as was done during the two previous visits of the president.
Several associations for the protection of the rights of citizens filed a complaint against the prefecture in the administrative court of Orléans due to restrictions on demonstrations.
Last week, Macron was on working visits to the regions. The president was accompanied by whistles and insults. Hundreds of citizens tripled the "march of empty pots" by banging spoons on pots and pans they had brought with them to protest the president's visit.
On April 14, France's Constitutional Council approved a key article of a pension reform bill that calls for a gradual increase in the country's retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030. Macron signed the law on Saturday night. After the decision of the Constitutional Council was announced, French trade unions called for an "exclusive and popular" protest on May 1.