France. “Macron earned an egg?” We check when

French President Emmanuel Macron is paying a high price for the current pension reform. Opponents of the reform blame him for raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. On April 17, in a televised address, Macron announcedthat the pension reform will come into force gradually from the autumn. He admitted that he understood the concerns and opposition of citizens, but that raising the retirement age was necessary. “With an increase in the number of pensioners, an increase in life expectancy, the answer cannot be to cut pensions, to increase the contributions of those who work, because that would mean allowing deficits to accumulate and increase our debt for future generations,” he said. The president’s words did not convince the protesters against the reform. During his speech, there was a demonstration in the streets of Paris.

Criticism of the president was at its best in traditional and social media. In the following days, Macron did not avoid public appearances, and videos of his opponents were posted on the Internet. On April 19, it hit the Polish Internet three-second recordingwhich shows Macron surrounded by a crowd of people and talking to a man. At one point, an egg falls on the president’s head. The bodyguard quickly covers him, and confusion ensues. “Emmanuel Macron earned an egg in the head”; “Macron gets hit with an egg. Congratulations for your accuracy,” commented Internet users on Twitter. “French President Macron was hit in the forehead with an egg during a meeting with residents,” one Facebook user wrote a day later. “Earlier, he was booed en masse during a visit to Alsace,” he added.

However, the recording is not new and has nothing to do with current events in France. The incident happened on March 1, 2017, when Macron was running for the presidency for the first time. “Emmanuel Macron is currently considered the favorite in the presidential election in France. At Wednesday’s agricultural fair in Paris, however, not everyone welcomed him warmly. A member of Macron’s security guard failed to protect him from an egg that someone threw at his head” – the TVN24.pl portal reported at the time. The portal also published photos from this event. The date and circumstances of the event are confirmed by accounts other media.

The incident in Alsace, mentioned by the quoted Internet user, took place on April 19 in Muttersholtz in the Lower Rhine department. The president was greeted with beating pots and booed. While talking to workers at a timber construction factory, he heard that the facility’s electricity had been cut off by trade union members protesting the pension reform. The protesters called for him to “come and do some work at night to see what it’s like.” President Macron defiantly responded to a chorus of whistles in the streets, claiming he expected nothing else. “Anger won’t stop me from moving forward,” he said.

The event of April 17 was also commented on in the media. After the TV appearance Macron went for a walk in Paris with his wife Brigitte. A group of men singing traditional songs in the street approached him to join them. When the video hit the Internet, a wave of criticism fell on the French president. It was recalled that in October last year, the daily “Libération” reported that the project, aimed at promoting the memory of traditional songs, was founded and is run by far-right activists. Among the songs sung and promoted by them – apart from French classics – there are also those that have a controversial origin, e.g. related to the Spanish fascist Falange and Nazi Germany. In addition, the video with Macron was supposedly uploaded to the network by an organization called “Projet Canto” created by the far right.