Farmers but not only. Emmanuel Macron folded this Saturday to the traditional visit to the Agricultural Show, in particular with the aim of reassuring the peasant world, shaken by agribashing and the uncertainty around the CAP budget. But between the competition cows, the morning tastings or the meetings with the breeders, the president was also caught by the news, and the movement of yellow vests.
During a heated exchange with a woman, the president first raised the possibility of receiving a group of yellow vests, which would be a first, before a historic figure of the movement was expelled from the scene by the police.
According to our reporter on the spot, Eric Drouet, accompanied by some yellow vests, indeed tried to approach Emmanuel Macron, a little before 11 am. Presidential security asked him to step aside, which he refused. "There are only happy people who can approach him," denounced Drouet.
Plainclothes security forces then evacuated him, which led to a crowd and a crowd movement in the aisles. Some cries of "dictatorship" were dropped by onlookers.
According to BFMTV, which quotes the lawyer of Eric Drouet, the latter was placed in police custody for rebellion.
The possibility of dialogue with a group of yellow vests
Shortly before, Emmanuel Macron had therefore started the dialogue with a dissatisfied in the spans of the Salon. "You do not receive the yellow vests", launched a woman presenting herself as a financial controller and saying having participated in the 67 Saturdays of mobilization of yellow vests since November 2018.
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VIDEO. At the end of 2018, the birth of "yellow vests"
“You structure a group for me and I receive you without problem, I am for dialogue. We take an hour and we discuss, "replied the head of state who has so far never received a group of yellow vests at the Elysee. "Everyone must find the reason," he still hoped.
"It's been 67 Saturdays that I have been mobilized, I have seen friends fall, I am taking grenades to disengage, I live the war every Saturday," accused the demonstrator. "It's because there are people who have become extraordinarily aggressive," retorted Emmanuel Macron, proposing "to stop going out and demonstrate like that."
Macron: "I don't think there are that many people on the street"
"I don't think there are that many people on the street," he said, cut off by his interlocutor, inviting him to "come to the street". “Unfortunately, I have too much work to come to the street. […] Sometimes, too, you are angry at things that are not true, ”he commented.
Emmanuel Macron questioned on pensions at the Salon de l'Agriculture: "I have too much work unfortunately to be able to come on the street" pic.twitter.com/6fG8eNP9vy
- CNEWS (@CNEWS) February 22, 2020Concerted pensions, Emmanuel Macron defended his reform and said he was ready to "have a great debate" on the issue.
Finally, as for the citizens' initiative referendum (RIC), one of the flagship demands of the Yellow Vests, the president recalled that he "never favored the popular initiative referendum", but favored that we lowers the threshold for the shared initiative referendum already in place. But for that, "we must change the Constitution and it is not I alone who can do it".