Post-episodes started today, Tuesday the two-day visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to the Netherlandswhere during a speech in The Hague, a guest of the Nexus Institute, he had to stop speaking for a while when young people from the audience they started shouting slogans against the reform of the French pension system and to unfurl banners which read in English “I think we’ve lost something: where is French democracy?”, “you bypassed Parliament again”, “the climate agreement is not being respected”, “when will you listen to the millions of people on the street?”» etc.

The French president, addressing the people who interrupted his speech and were removed from the hall by the Dutch police, said that “I can answer all questions about what we talk about in France”, that “democracy is a place where one can protest,” but also that “the day you tell yourself that when you disagree with a law that has been passed or with people that have been elected, you can do whatever you want, you are endangering democracy”.

France

The French president’s two-day official visit to the Netherlands is the first by a French head of state since 2000. Emmanuel Macron is accompanied by seven ministers including Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire. The official program of the visit includes a state dinner at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, as and a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The two countries will sign a “pact on innovation and sustainable development” which will encourage bilateral cooperation in the fields of semiconductors, quantum physics and energy. A defense deal until 2024 is also on the table. France is the third customer (8.1% of exports in 2021) and the eighth supplier (3.6% of imports) of the Netherlands. The Netherlands is France’s seventh largest supplier.