Union officials called on the President of the Republic on Saturday to “consult the people” on the pension reform, during a seventh day of mobilization. The week promises to be a decisive week for the project before parliament.
“The determination is there, we even went to a stage of great anger, with what the President of the Republic did” on Friday, by rejecting the unions’ request to meet him, said the secretary general of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, speaking of an “arm of honor” from Emmanuel Macron.
“Since he is so sure of himself, the President of the Republic, he only has to consult the people. We will see the response of the people”, he said, questioned before the start of the Paris demonstration which started around 2:00 p.m. from Place de la République towards Place de la Nation.
Mme Panot crie au bluff
“I implore those who run this country to get out of this form of denial of the social movement”, insisted his CFDT counterpart, Laurent Berger, evoking a form of “stunned” in the face of the end of inadmissibility of the president of the Republic.
“The government lets believe that it is inflexible but is absolutely not”, for its part affirmed the boss of the LFI deputies, Mathilde Panot, while its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon estimated from Marseille that the leader of the State is betting “on decay”, judging this “extremely harmful idea in a democracy” and hoping “to find a way out (…) by force”.
Will shared by demonstrators who could be heard chanting in the capital: “They tell us ‘bump and die’, we say ‘long live the strike'”. At the same time, the police intervened in the face of “disturbers” who “threw mortars at the crowd”, said the police headquarters. A motorcycle shop was also targeted, AFP noted.
Less people
This is the second day of mobilization organized on a Saturday, so as to allow employees to participate without having to ask for a day of strike. On February 11, 963,000 people took to the streets according to the Ministry of the Interior, more than 2.5 million according to the CGT.
Participation should be less strong this time, given the mobilizations already underway or completed at midday. By way of comparison, in Tarbes, 2,500 people marched on Saturday, according to the prefecture, against 4,600 on February 11. In the North, 950 people gathered in Douai according to the prefecture, against 3,200 on February 11, and 1,300 in Valenciennes, against 3,200 a month ago.
Laurent Berger recognized a lesser mobilization during this day of action organized four days after the previous one, but the determination is “strong”, he assured, before a new day of demonstrations, the 8th, scheduled for Wednesday.
In addition, “FO will propose that we have three days, 15-16-17, of strikes and demonstrations”, indicated its secretary general Frédéric Souillot.
“Government setbacks”
“We keep hope”, assures Philippe Anselme, 65, a retiree who came with his wife to demonstrate in Bordeaux, (3,400 demonstrators according to the prefecture, 18,000 according to the inter-union) “because even if the right has allied with Macronie in the Senate, there have always been government setbacks in the past”. “We may be in the last square of resistance, but we will be there,” he promises.
Same state of mind with Marie-Cécile Périllat, secretary general of the FSU of Haute-Garonne, who marched in Toulouse, where the organizers claimed 45,000 participants: “The pressure, it is really starting to exert itself, on the legislative power including. So we believe in it, we hold on and we will not let go, “she says.
On Friday, the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt drew the constitutional weapon of the single vote in the Senate, in the face of “methodical opposition” from the left. The senators resumed Saturday morning the examination of the reform, before the ax of the end of the debates Sunday midnight. A joint joint commission bringing together deputies and senators is to be held on Wednesday before a final vote in stride in both chambers.
Possible adoption sans vote (49.3)
But it seems uncertain that the government will manage to find a majority of deputies to approve the text. He could resort once again to article 49.3 (adoption without a vote), which would place him in a perilous political situation.
On Tuesday, the unions had once again demonstrated very strong opposition to the reform project, and renewable strikes were initiated or intensified in several sectors, in particular rail and air, as well as electricity production plants, gas infrastructure. In Paris, the town hall reported 4,400 tonnes of uncollected waste on Saturday, the 6th day of the garbage collectors’ strike.
According to an Elabe poll for BFMTV published on Saturday, 63% of French people approve of the mobilization against the reform, 54% supporting the use of strikes and the blocking of certain sectors. But 78% (+14 points since March 3) nevertheless think that the reform will be voted on and applied.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp