Furious French raid kitchen cupboards to send Macron a noisy message

The tradition of bashing pots and pans in protest has been revived, with ministers facing a cookware cacophony across the country

The French have turned protesting into an art form. A country synonymous with revolution has given the world the “manure protest”, where tonnes of muck were dumped outside parliament; the “vegetable protest”, with carrots and rotten tomatoes spread on the steps of public buildings; and the “dairy protest”, in which gallons of milk were spilled. Earlier this month, opponents of Emmanuel Macron’s bill to raise the state pension age to 64 dumped gas and electricity meters outside Marseilles city hall.

For the past week, furious French people have revived a much older form of protest: the casserolade, or “pots and pans protest”, after Macron pushed through the unpopular law.