Financial TimesFinancial Times

‘Master of clocks’: Can Macron wait out a crisis of his own making?

By Leila Abboud

23 Mar 2023 · 4 min read

Editor's Note

From pension reforms to public debt, Emmanuel Macron faces a series of challenges. Can he maintain his reform agenda in the face of growing public dissent? The FT analyzes.

Faced with a political crisis largely of his own making, French president Emmanuel Macron has resorted to a trademark tactic to salvage his second term: playing for time.

In his first public statement since ramming through his unpopular pensions reform without a parliamentary vote, Macron defended both the policy and the method and tried to calm public anger that has sparked spontaneous nightly protests from Paris to Rennes.

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