He later admitted the housing aid cut was a “screw-up”, but his subsequent economic policies didn't cut much slack as far as the working man was concerned, either. His reform of the French labour laws were heavily criticised for eroding workers' rights to the profit of their employers. Next came the pensioners, who were asked to “make an effort” by Macron when his pensions reform slashed their spending power. Macron's words to jobless people didn't help, either. To a young gardener who had complained to the president that he couldn't find work, Macron replied: “I cross the road and I find you one”, suggesting he should look in restaurant work instead.
Macron is harshly questioned whenever he visits the “real” France. “Your policies are destroying us”, a pensioner told Macron during his WWI commemoration tour in Charleville-Mézières, in France's north-east, this week. “Your reforms are unjust, you have penalised the pensioners, the middle class.” Another one, this time in Verdun: “Don't you feel it, from Paris, the malaise that is mounting in France?”
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