“Tonight’s message will be a call to demonstrate massively on Saturday,” he said. Laurent Berger, leader of the main union, the CFDT, for whom the Government would commit a “democratic madness” if it does not listen to the majority rejection.
Nails 757,000 peopleaccording to the Ministry of the Interior, and almost two million, according to the CGT union, demonstrated in France to increase pressure on Parliament, which has until March to rule on said reform.
The new protests came a day after parliament began debating the controversial billwhich contemplates the progressive delay of the retirement age from 62 to 64 years from now to 2030 and the advancement to 2027 of the requirement to contribute 43 years – and not 42 as now – to collect a full pension.
Protests in major cities
Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Nice, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes and other cities, as well as in Paris, the capital.
“If the government continues to not listen, we will have to go to the next level,” warned the leader of the CGT union, Philippe Martinez.which called for “tougher, more numerous, more massive and indefinite” strikes, at the start of the march in Paris, which featured a majority of young protesters and banners reading “Save your pension” and “Tax billionaires, don’t to the grandmothers”.
According to a provisional balance of the Prefecture, 17 people were arrested during the marches.
Supported by high numbers of rejection of the measure and after the largest demonstration against a social reform in three decades, with between 1.27 and 2.8 million people in the streets on January 31, the unions are waging their offensive with strikes and peaceful protests.
He train service and public transport in Paris were “disturbed” todayalthough less than in previous protests, while one flight in five had to be canceled at the Parisian Orly airport, authorities reported.
The company state utility EDF specified that the protests caused the temporary reduction of supplies of electricity, without causing blackouts.
More than half the workforce was on strike at the refineries in TotalEnergies, added the company in a statement, reported the AFP news agency.
The Ministry of Education explained that about 13% of teachers were on strikea decrease compared to the day of protest last week.
What does the reform consist of?
The French Executive defends a necessary reform to avoid a future deficit in the pension fund and to bring the retirement age in France, one of the lowest in the European Union (EU), closer to that of its neighbors.
For now, the parliamentary relationship of forces does not favor the requests of the unions: yesterday, in the first day of plenary debate in the Assembly (lower house), 292 deputies voted against and 243 in favor of a motion from the left that He called for the withdrawal of the project.
“It is the reform or bankruptcy” of the pay-as-you-go system, the Minister of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, had warned them. The pension fund will face a deficit of some 14.6 billion dollars in 2030, according to the Government.
Although the reform is an electoral promise of Macron, observers estimate that his re-election in 2022 was due in large part to the desire of voters to avoid the victory of his rival in the second round, the far-right Marine Le Pen.
Weeks later, the ruling party lost its absolute majority in the Assembly. Now he is seeking the votes of the right-wing opposition of Los Republicanos (LR) to approve the reform, in the face of the refusal of Le Pen and the left.
In a last minute concession, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced that people who started working between the ages of 20 and 21 will be able to retire at 63but without being able to convince all the deputies of LR.
The original plan, in Borne’s words, involved striking a balance “with a legal retirement age of 64 from 2030 and 43 years of contributions.”
The Government, determined to carry out the reform despite popular rejection, used a parliamentary procedure that limits the time for debate in the Assembly and in the Senate.
After the pandemic forced the withdrawal of a first attempt, the Government chose a maneuver that allows it to apply the current plan if the two Houses of Parliament do not rule by March 26.
Since Macron came to power in 2017, his liberal reforms have earned him an image of “president of the rich”, as during the social protest of the yellow vests, the social movement that shook France and neighboring countries in 2018 in demand for better wages.
Source: Ambito
