New French mobilization against pension reform
- April 6, 2023
- 0
Hundreds of thousands of French people took to the streets on Thursday to pension reform presidential government Emmanuel Macronon the eleventh great day of the protests organized by
Hundreds of thousands of French people took to the streets on Thursday to pension reform presidential government Emmanuel Macronon the eleventh great day of the protests organized by the trade unions, which registered a slight decline in their participation and incidents in Paris.
Ahead of a final decision by the Constitutional Council – the body that interprets the Magna Carta, which will have to approve or not approve the pension reform law on April 14 – unions have been looking for a new show of strength after the failure of a meeting held the day before with Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne.
A day before the Easter holidays that could have affected participation, French authorities estimated participation in the Paris march, the country’s main march, at 57,000, a high figure in 400 000 unions.
Photo: Reuters
The trend is slightly downward, however, as the unions themselves estimated the participants in the latest Paris mobilization last week at 450,000.
“Whatever happens, mobilization will continue until the reform is canceled– assured the new leader of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT, the second central in the country) Sophie Binet at the beginning of the demonstration organized in Paris.
At the same time, the Secretary General of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT, first union), Laurent Berger, stressed that “this movement continues to rely on public supportand that “opposition to this reform remains just as strong.”
The protesters today agreed that the only way out of this crisis is to cancel the reform that raises the minimum retirement age for from 62 to 64 yearswhere the government was inflexible.
For the executive branch, this measure is necessary to guarantee financial balance pension system.
“There is no alternative, they must step back, we are right, they are wrong, we are in the majority,” he said in a statement. EFE at a Paris demonstration, Thomas Vaucouleur, a member of the agricultural section of the CGT trade union.
For this trade unionist “there is strong resentment population” against the government, exacerbated by the police response to the mobilization, and Macron “lives in a parallel reality of capitalism and big business.”
“At least I think I’ll be dead before I retire,” complained Violetta, a 25-year-old student who has also criticized the government’s deafness to popular discontent.
Incidents in Paris
Photo: Reuters
In the capital, aggressive groups, anticipating the procession of trade unions, attacked a restaurant carousel on the boulevard Montparnasse.
The place is symbolic for Macron, because it was there that he held the first round of the 2017 presidential election, the first victory and was already the object of quarrels at the yellow vest protests in 2018 and 2019. .
Other incidents also took place, such as burning cars, destruction of street furniture and attacks on bank brancheswhich indicates a growing level of mobilization.
Though generally peaceful, they became especially bitter after the government’s decision to approve the reform without putting it to a vote in parliament on 16 March.
This Thursday’s mobilization also led to strikes in sectors such as education and public transport such as trains and public transport, although not as intense as on previous occasions.
In Paris, metro traffic was almost normal, and the frequency of suburban trains was partially reduced. In terms of flights, airports such as Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes routes will be reduced by 20% planned, but Parisian Orly, which had been badly hit in other cases, should not have canceled trips.
In parallel, difficulties in the fuel sector remain, despite the forced mobilization of workers this week to deal with supply problems, and the situation is expected to improve in the coming days.
However, today the government received legal failure decision of the Administrative Court of Rouen, which decided to suspend the obligation imposed on several workers in the refinery Gonfreville-l’Orcherfrom the TotalEnergies group, who was unemployed.
Photo: Reuters
Barely a year after the last presidential election, this political crisis escalates into The fall of Macron’s popularitywho, if faced with the far-right Marine Le Pen in the presidential election today, would lose by a wide margin, according to the polls.
A barometer published today by Les Echos shows that only a quarter of French people say they trust him, although still far from the 13% of socialist François Hollande.
(EFE)
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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