The Minister of Education, Pap Ndiaye, notably had to modify the schedule of his visit to Lyon, before being welcomed by demonstrators on his return to Paris.
Emmanuel Macron’s ministers are not immune to the anger of protesters against the pension reform. Several members of government faced rallies and pot concerts on Monday, April 24. The visit to Lyon (Rhône) by the Minister of Education was particularly disrupted, Pap Ndiaye not finally going to 2:30 p.m. as planned at the National Higher Institute of Teaching and Education (Inspe), where the expected a hundred demonstrators.
Equipped with various kitchen utensils, but also fog horns and smoke bombs, these opponents of the pension reform tried to force one of the entrances to Inspe by shouting “we too will go through with force”, an allusion to the 49.3 operated by Elisabeth Borne. They were repelled by the police, who notably used tear gas to respond to a few projectile jets.
Pap Ndiaye finally went to Inspe later in the afternoon. “All of this is not very important, the main thing is to meet the staff of the rectorate and the student teachers” of Inspe, he had told reporters a little earlier. “It’s a small setback that ultimately changes nothing”.
Monday evening, his return to Paris was also disrupted by the presence of several hundred demonstrators in the hall of the Gare de Lyon, in Paris. According to Brut journalist Rémi Buisineon the spot, Pap Ndiaye had to stay a few minutes in the car arriving at the station, before to leave the premises through the basement of the building.
Braun and Dupond-Moretti also targeted
Traveling at the same time to the Poitiers University Hospital (Vienne), the Minister of Health, François Braun, arrived to the sound of pots and pans and to the boos of a few dozen demonstrators, who had responded to a call from the CGT and were kept at a distance by the CRS.
In Sarthe, it was the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti, who came to inaugurate a support structure for detainees at the end of their sentence in a prison in Coulaines, who was welcomed by a noisy concert given by around 150 demonstrators. According to a union official, he went to greet them after his visit.
For her part, the Secretary of State for Children, Charlotte Caubel, canceled a visit scheduled for Monday to a hospital in Saint-Maurice (Val-de-Marne). His entourage mentioned a 24-hour postponement due to a “schedule conflict”. The president of the LFI group in the Assembly, Mathilde Panot, said she was there for another protest rally, and quipped on Twitter about a “locked down government”.
A new call for “casserolades” at 8 p.m.
Other demonstrators were present at the beginning of the evening in front of the Théâtre de Paris, where the Molières ceremony is organized in the presence of the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak.
Opponents of the pension reform also gathered in several cities at 8 p.m. at the call of the Attac association, to mark the first anniversary of the re-election of Emmanuel Macron.