(Ganges) In the aftermath of a turbulent day in eastern France where he was shouted down by opponents of his pension reform, President Emmanuel Macron was greeted by hundreds of demonstrators Thursday in the South for a new education trip.

After having discussed at length with teachers, parents and students in a college in Ganges, the Head of State announced an “unconditional increase” in salary of 100 to 230 euros net monthly for teachers, “at all career levels” and “back to school” in September.

The increase will be increased “up to 500 euros per month” for those who accept new assignments, on a voluntary basis, he added, without giving details.

When he arrived, Mr. Macron did not meet the hundreds of noisy demonstrators gathered in the city center and who were kept at a safe distance from the college by the police.

Whistles, vuvuzelas, smoke bombs… but no saucepans. Some were confiscated by gendarmes while a prefectural decree prohibited “portable sound devices”.

Despite the promulgation of the law on pension reform (which raises the legal retirement age to 64), after its validation by the Constitutional Council, the dispute continues, seeming to change in nature. Large parades under the banner of the unions are replaced by more spontaneous, but almost daily operations, in particular pot concerts.

“We’re here”, “Macron resign”, chanted the protesters on Thursday, some of whom threw eggs and potatoes at the police.

The day before, during a trip to Alsace, in the east of the country, Emmanuel Macron had been violently booed and attacked during his first walkabout in weeks.

“Eggs and casseroles are just for cooking at my house,” Mr. Macron commented on his arrival, in a short exchange with the radical left MP for this constituency, Sébastien Rome, who told him: “the resistance” is “a little far away, you can’t hear it, but it’s there”.

“I always go to the front if people are ready to talk,” continued the French president.

For this trip, the second union in France, the CGT, claimed two power cuts at Montpellier airport, before the arrival of Mr. Macron, and in the college visited.

The mobilization against the pension reform is distinguished from previous ones by its duration, underlines the political scientist Pascal Perrineau who notes “a bad mood” still as high in the opinion polls.

In Rennes (west), some 5,000 people according to the unions, 1,200 according to the police, demonstrated Thursday in the form of a “heating tower” before the mobilization of May 1 at the call of the inter-union.

At the same time, about 300 railway workers and strikers from other sectors briefly invaded the lobby of the tower of Euronext – owner of the Paris Stock Exchange and six other European places – in the La Défense business district, near of Paris, which they flooded with smoke bombs.

The “anger” expressed against the pension reform will “not prevent me from continuing to move”, assured Mr. Macron the day before.

The deputy of his camp Karl Olive praised the “courage” of the head of state who confronts the “serum of truth” that is “the reality on the ground”.

“It’s not brave to go see the voters, what’s brave is to make the right decisions for the country,” retorted far-right MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy.

Emmanuel Macron is not the only one to see his trips heckled: several ministers have been received freshly by reception committees and casseroles in recent days or have been forced to give up field visits.

Despite this tense context, Emmanuel Macron intends to illustrate his new watchword: “acceleration”.

In addition to the school, which he intends to change “to reconnect with the ambition of being one of the best in Europe”, he wants to launch all-out projects, with measures on work, health, immigration or the fight against fraud.