[9] The New York Times add that in order "[t]o keep the system financially viable without funneling more taxpayer money into it – something the government already does – Macron sought to gradually raise the legal age when workers can start collecting a pension by three months every year until it reaches 64 in 2030."

[16] On 14 March, The Guardian declared that Macron had two options – broker deals with Les Républicains or force the bill through using Article 49.3, "a measure that avoids an Assemblée nationale vote [the government] risks losing".

They said that "[m]inisters have said the government would not use the 49.3, widely condemned as undemocratic and which risks inflaming a volatile public mood" and that "[i]nstead, there has been a flurry of negotiations by ministers to guarantee a majority in the lower house"; "[u]nion leaders have said using the 49.3 would lead to a hardening of opposition and would escalate strikes".

France 24 reported that a poll from a few days prior to the move suggested around "eight out of ten people opposed legislating in this way, including a majority of voters who backed Macron in the first round of last year's presidential election".

[7] Those opposed to the reforms argue "the government is prioritizing businesses and people who are highly paid over average laborers",[28] and have "disputed the need for urgency", The New York Times saying they contest that "Macron is attacking a cherished right to retirement and unfairly burdening blue-collar workers because of his refusal to increase taxes on the wealthy".

In addition, opponents opine that Macron has "exaggerated the threat of projected deficits and refused to consider other ways to balance the system, like increasing worker payroll taxes, decoupling pensions from inflation or increasing taxes on wealthy households or companies", and that "the official body that monitors France's pension system has acknowledged that there is no immediate threat of bankruptcy and that long-term deficits", which Macron and the government have argued would occur if these reforms were not implemented, "were hard to accurately predict".

[7] Jean Garrigues, a historian on France's political culture, theorized the unpopularity of the reforms can be partially attributed to Macron personally, given the "pre-existing anger against" him, having "struggled to shake off the image of an out-of-touch 'president of the rich'".

[74] PBS reported that Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had asked Paris City Hall to force some of the garbage workers to return to work, calling the build-up along the streets "a public health issue".

Conservative MPs, such as those from The Republicans, whom Macron has relied upon for support in votes in the National Assembly, "rebuke[d] the government, warning that its move would radicalise opponents and undercut the law's democratic legitimacy.

[89] The CGT announced further strikes and demonstrations for 23 March;[75] its head, Philippe Martinez, said that the forcing through of the law "shows contempt towards the people",[77] with unions describing the move by the government as "a complete denial of democracy".

[93] Later in the day, National Rally filed a separate no-confidence motion,[84] signed by 81 cross-party MPs;[93] party leader Le Pen said the decision to push through the pension changes was "a total failure for the government".

[100][19] protesters who gathered at the Place d'Italie then "marched toward Europe's biggest waste incineration plant, which has become a flashpoint of tensions", some setting trash cans alight and chanting mottos "such as "the streets are ours" as firefighter sirens wailed".

Students and activists from the Permanent Revolution collective "briefly invaded" the Forum des Halles shopping mall, with banners calling for a general strike and chanting for Paris to "stand up" and "rise up",[24] and letting off red smoke canisters.

[101] In response to reports of constituency offices of various MPs being vandalized, Macron "called the speakers of both houses of parliament to affirm his support for all legislators and said the government was mobilized to "put everything in place to protect them" late on 19 March.

NUPES' Jean-Luc Mélenchon informed RTL that "[f]or as long as the 64-year reform is on the table, we have to keep it up, but decried the use of violence, advising protesters to not "make our struggle invisible with practices that would be turned against us, as "Macron... is counting on people going too far, so as to profit from a situation of fear.

Éric Ciotti, leader of the Republicans, said invoking Article 49.3 was "a result of many years of political failures" that brought to the fore "a profound crisis in our constitution", but did not think the no-confidence votes was the solution required.

France 24 revealed that Macron was to meet Prime Minister Borne in the morning of 21 March, the speaker of the National Assembly and the head of the senate over lunch, and with MPs from his Renaissance bloc in the evening.

[114] "Hundreds" of workers have blocked access to the gas depots in a town near Marseille,[121] with strikes at multiple refineries across western and southern France, "partially disrupt[ing]" oil shipments.

[123][122][124] AP added that the depot supplies fuel for southeastern France gas stations, which are currently most afflicted by shortages; government spokesman Olivier Veran "warned that more orders may follow in the coming days for other sites".

[127] Marine Le Pen said "she would not play "any part in putting out the fire" as the president was the only one who had the keys to a political crisis he had himself created", and, pointing out that the interview being broadcast during lunchtime news programmes mostly watched by pensioners – which Reuters stated was "the only demographic that is not dead set against the reform" – was an example of Macron's "disdain for workers", and how "[h]e insults all French people, in general, all those who ... are protesting".

[111][136] ITV News reported in the early afternoon that it was "currently the site of a large demonstration", and also that "[h]uge crowds have started marching in the major cities of Marseille, Lyon, Paris and Nantes as more than 250 protests were organised across the country".

[173] Clashes also erupted at Montluc prison, where Macron paid tribute to a leading resistance figure, Jean Moulin, when protesters attempted to break through a riot police cordon, who were deployed to keep them away from the French president.

"[95] Head of the UNSA trade union federation, Lauren Escure, admitted that "when there is this much anger and so many French people on the streets, the more radical elements take the floor", and that it was not something they would want, but was inevitable, and "will be entirely the government's fault," he told AFP.

[101] BBC News's Paris correspondent, Hugh Schofield, on 22 March, said that the protests in recent days had been "spectacular, sometimes, visually" but "not huge in terms of scale" and "mostly .. the work of very committed left-wingers, class-warrior types, who are leading the battle".

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that "strikers were being forced back under emergency powers designed to safeguard essential services", and from the morning of 17 March told RTL radio that "requisitioning is working and bins are being emptied", although this was disputed by an aide of Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo.

[182] On 18 March, the mayor of Paris' 12th district, Emmanuelle Pierre-Marie, said that the priority was food waste in the streets – AP describing the "uncollected garbage" as having "become a visual and olfactory symbol of the actions to defeat the president's pension reform plan" – "because it is what brings pests to the surface" and that they "are extremely sensitive to the situation.

[191][192] Public opinion polling analysis has shown that Sarkozy's push for reform played a role in driving voters to both the Socialist Party and the far-right National Front in the 2012 presidential election.

[193] One author of a paper in academic journal West European Politics tweeted a screenshot of the results of a study that showed executive approval has historically fallen after no-confidence votes, and linked it to what the impact of invoking Article 49.3 could be.

"[9][126] On 23 March, Associated Press reported how the CGT's members at Mobilier National (the institution in charge of providing flags, red carpets and furniture for public buildings) "would not help prepare a Sunday reception for the king upon his arrival in Paris"; in response, the Élysée Palace said "non-striking workers would set up the necessary accoutrements for the trip".

Éric Ciotti, leader of the Republicans said the cancellation brought "shame on our country", while Mélenchon was of an opposing mood, "delighted" that the "meeting of kings at Versailles" had been broken up, and that "the English knew that France's interior minister was pathetic on security".