French President Emmanuel McEwan was giving an interview to a TV channel on pension policy reforms when he suddenly took off his luxury watch, but he has come under fire for doing so.
McEwan has decided that the retirement age in France will now be 64 instead of 62, which has sparked protests across the country. But according to the government, it has done this to keep the budget deficit low.
McEwan’s representatives have said that the president took the watch off because it “was making noise against the desk.”
However, critics claim that McEwan’s removal of his expensive watch means that he too knows that his time is not going well and that he is not as popular with the public as before.Some people even falsely claimed that this luxury watch is worth $86,000. Meanwhile, Elysee Palace has denied these claims.
McKhowan is the President of the Amirs.
The watch removal incident came as McEwan was arguing for a change in the pension age during an interview on Wednesday.
As he placed his arms on the table, a voice was heard. So the president put his hands under the table and continued his speech. But when he brought his hands on the table again, the watch was missing from his wrist.
His team says that taking off the watch is an ‘innocent’ act. However, the ‘disappearance’ of the watch from the wrist immediately attracted attention from critics.
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Opposition MP Clemence Geeti continues to participate in protests against pension reforms in the country. He said in a message on Twitter that the president claimed that the lowest income earners have more purchasing power than ever but then slipped his luxury watch under the table. “This man is a joke.”
His colleague Farida Amrani said that the president hid his watch, which cost more than the monthly salary of the lowest income earners. He is the president of the rich.
At the same time, the actual price of this watch started to be debated on the internet and some critics claimed that it could be more than 80 thousand euros. While the Elysee Palace said in a statement released to the French media that this watch is from a company called Bell & Ross, whose model is BRV 1-92.
According to him, it is a special edition watch with his family mark on it. The price of this watch online (which is not a special edition) is 1660 to 3300 euros.
“He has been wearing this watch regularly for over a year and a half,” Elysee Palace said.
Political opponents continue to criticize McKhowan for ‘supporting the rich’.
He was criticized in February when he awarded the world’s richest man and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with France’s highest honor. Even then, people were protesting on the streets about their future and financial conditions.
Ironically, McEwan sometimes refers to himself as ‘the master of time’ because he has been ‘setting the pace of French politics’.
According to him, this change in the retirement age was necessary so that the budget does not go into deficit.
His government passed the reforms last week through special constitutional powers without a vote because they knew it would be difficult to pass the National Assembly. Two no-confidence motions were passed against the government on this measure, but they survived both times.
McEwan’s government announced its plans in January and now the dispute has thrown the country into chaos once again. As a result, King Charles III’s visit this week was canceled.
In addition to protests in France, transport, waste management and oil refinery workers and teachers have gone on widespread strikes.