PARIS: Protesters stormed the headquarters of luxury conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton on Thursday as the nationwide protest movement against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension overhaul morphed into a populist rebuke of France’s establishment, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Video footage captured a crowd of men waving flares and banners as they forced their way through the entrance of the luxury group’s headquarters on Paris’s tony Avenue Montaigne. WSJ said another video clip shows the crowd proceeding up an escalator to a reception area that leads to higher floors where LVMH Chief Executive Officer
Bernard Arnault, the world’s richest man, has offices along with other top executives.
People at the headquarters said the intruders didn’t stay in the building for long. Protesters had cleared out of the area by the early afternoon, WSJ reported.
Around 380,000 people demonstrated against the reform across France on Thursday, with 42,000 demonstrators in the capital, according to the interior ministry. It is the third straight week the number of protesters has fallen, according to WSJ.
Weekly protests have raged across France for months as Macron has forged ahead with plans to raise the country’s retirement age to 64 from 62 by 2030. The president further inflamed protesters by using his constitutional powers to ram the legislation through parliament without a vote. France’s constitutional council is due to rule on the legislation on Friday.
According to WSJ, the government’s wielding of executive authority has fuelled a national debate over whether it is time to curb the powers of the French presidency, one of the most powerful among Western democracies.
Macron says he is simply trying to save France’s pension system for future generations, warning that government finances can’t keep up with the swelling ranks of French retirees.
Opponents of Macron, however, say he is acting as a “president of the rich” who is intent on dismantling France’s social state. Since taking office he has overhauled the French economy by stripping away job protections and abolishing the country’s wealth tax. His wife, Brigitte Macron, is well-known for donning Louis Vuitton outfits during state visits and other public appearances, according to WSJ.
Arnault has become a lightning rod since the protests began in January, with protesters carrying mock wanted posters featuring his face and exhorting him and other billionaires to do more for the common good. According to WSJ, protesters filing into LVMH’s headquarters on Thursday chanted, “There is money in the pockets of billionaires.”
LVMH has ridden a surge in global demand for luxury goods, boosting sales across brands that offer everything from fine wine and jewelry to leather goods and upscale hotels.
On Wednesday, the conglomerate reported a sharp rise in quarterly sales, driven by a rebound in China and strong demand for its clothing, handbags and jewelry in Europe and Japan. The figures were an early indication that high-end shoppers in China are once again boosting makers of luxury goods now that Beijing has eased Covid-19 restrictions.
According to WSJ, shares in LVMH–the owner of Louis Vuitton, Dior and Tiffany & Co –jumped to a record in Paris trading, further cementing its position as the world’s largest luxury goods company and Europe’s biggest stock by market capitalisation. The company was valued at just under $480 billion during Thursday’s trading.
The surging luxury and cosmetics sector had helped Paris’s CAC-40 index set a record high Thursday, when most European stock markets were tepid. (ANI)