2023-04-16 16:57:33
Posted Apr 16, 2023, 6:09 PMUpdated on Apr 16, 2023, 6:57 PM
The executive intends to move on following the decision of the Constitutional Council, which validated Friday the raising of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 years. Not the unions. ” It is not finished ! is even the title of the joint statement that they published at the end of the day on Friday.
The announcement of the verdict of the Elders marked a defeat for the organizations of employees. But she did not sign the end of hostilities in the face of a reform that they do not consider more legitimate following than before, especially since the censored measures come to make the reform even more “brutal and unjust”.
New highlight
The battle will therefore experience a new climax on the 1is may. The meeting will be historic since for the first time, all French unions are calling together to mobilize on Workers’ Day.
However, the bet is risky as participation in action days is in sharp decline. In addition, this year, the 1is May falls not only during the spring holidays of zones B and C but also on a Monday. “It was difficult to step over it,” explains a trade unionist. But it is far from over.
Until then, the social climate will continue to bubble following the spontaneous demonstrations that have taken place in recent days, sometimes punctuated by violence. Things are also moving in certain professions, in particular with a “day of railway anger” scheduled for Thursday, April 20.
Electrified Climate
The climate was even more electrified by the fact that the Head of State did not seek to calm things down, on the contrary. Emmanuel Macron refused to meet union leaders when they asked him to in March. His entourage contacted them one by one Friday just before the decision of the Elders to try to organize a meeting this Tuesday, which would symbolically turn the page on the reform by marking the start of a new cycle.
Which made them furious. “The Elysée instrumentalizes people, we can no longer be considered as pawns in the service of a political sequence”, explains a number one. “LOL”, quipped Sophie Binet, the general secretary of the CGT.
The anger of employee organizations was further fueled by the publication of the law in the “Official Journal” overnight from Friday to Saturday, just hours following the validation of the Constitutional Council. In their statement, they had called “solemnly” Emmanuel Macron not to promulgate his reform… Which he therefore hastened to do. This was experienced as a “provocation”, a new mark of “contempt”.
The RIP perspective
“By enacting the law overnight, on the sly, Macron is closing all the exit doors from the conflict in a very worrying form of radicalization,” said Sophie Binet in an interview with the regional dailies of the Ebra group published on Sunday, in which she adds: “He was the president of the rich, he is becoming that of chaos. “Emmanuel Macron did not choose appeasement. From start to finish, it’s contempt” and “the feeling of contempt leads to anger”, warned Laurent Berger in an interview with “Parisien” published on Sunday, calling for “cass[er] the hut [mais] in number of demonstrators” on 1is May.
The prospect of a RIP might allow the unions to maintain mobilization in another form. After the failure of the first request for a shared initiative referendum (RIP) rejected on Friday, they remain hopeful that the second submitted by senators a few days ago will be validated on May 3, the date on which the Elders announced that they would make their decision. But the exercise is far from over.
Nuisance power
Be that as it may, they not only know that, for the time being, the conflict improves their image with employees, but that they continue to have a real power of nuisance for the executive while the exit of the pension crisis promises to be difficult for Emmanuel Macron. They have no intention of depriving themselves of using it for at least two reasons.
The first is that, as François Hommeril, president of the CFE-CGC, explains, “our troops are not running out of steam, on the contrary there is a strong demand for continued action”. The second is the strength of public support for the social movement which so far has not been denied and which the next polls will say if it ebbs following the promulgation and the televised intervention of Emmanuel Macron this Monday evening .
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