liveLIVE. Pension reform: Macron brings together the ministers concerned this Wednesday evening

The essential

7:38 p.m. – 27.4% of strikers at EDF, down

Just over a quarter of EDF employees (27.4%) stopped work on Wednesday, according to group management. This participation is in very sharp decline compared to the previous day of mobilization during the week, March 7, during which the management had reported 47.65% of strikers on the day compared to the total workforce of the company.

7:32 p.m. – 480,000 demonstrators in France, according to the Interior

A total of 480,000 people marched in France on Wednesday, including 37,000 in Paris, against the pension reform at the call of the unions, according to a count by the Ministry of the Interior. Last Saturday, 368,000 people marched in France, according to the Interior Ministry, including 48,000 in Paris.

7:15 p.m. – The CGT announces a total of 1.7 million demonstrators

Some 1.7 million demonstrators marched in France on Wednesday against the pension reform, according to the CGT, for the 8th day of action at the call of the unions. This is more than during the 7th day, Saturday, which had seen more than 1 million people march, according to the CGT, but less than March 7, when more than 3 million people had mobilized.

6:52 p.m. – Emmanuel Macron meets Wednesday evening Elisabeth Borne and the ministers concerned by the reform

Emmanuel Macron meets Wednesday evening at the Élysée Palace with Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and the main ministers concerned by the pension reform on the eve of a decisive day in Parliament, we learned from the presidency. The executive, which reached an agreement on Wednesday between deputies and senators on a common version of the disputed project, assured that it wanted to find a majority to have it adopted Thursday in the National Assembly.

6:22 p.m. – 37,000 demonstrators in Paris, according to the police headquarters

A total of 37,000 people demonstrated in the streets of Paris on Wednesday according to a count by the police headquarters. Last Saturday, during the previous day, they had been 48,000 demonstrators to beat the Parisian pavement, according to the same source.

6:02 p.m. – The agreement shows that it is possible to “build solutions together”, says Borne

The agreement reached on Wednesday between the senators and the deputies in the mixed parity committee (CMP) on the pension reform shows that it is possible to “build solutions together”, said Elisabeth Borne immediately after the announcement of this compromise. “After the examination by each assembly, seven deputies and seven senators of various sensitivities agreed and proposed a common text to preserve our pension system. By this compromise, they respond to the request of the French to build solutions together for the country, ”wrote the Prime Minister on Twitter, without mentioning the vote which is scheduled for Thursday in the National Assembly.

5:40 p.m. – Pensions: deputies and senators agree on a common version of the reform project

The deputies and senators agreed on a common version of the reform project.

5:05 p.m. – “We will continue until the withdrawal! “: in the processions, anger and determination

Opponents of the pension reform project, including in the ranks of the so-called reformist unions, were still numerous on Wednesday to want to continue the battle, whatever the epilogue scheduled for Parliament. “We will see what we will do afterwards, but we will not stop like that”, assured, in the demonstration of Rennes, David Morel, the secretary general of the departmental union CFDT.
Whether the reform is adopted by a vote or by article 49.3, “I will continue to mobilize”, explains, in the Lille demonstration, Marie-Josée Delautre, employed in the automotive industry in Somain (North), 57 years old, inserted CFTC. “As a woman, I have a choppy career, and I’m going to have to leave at 67 to have a full retirement, it’s unacceptable! Women will never have a full pension at 64,” she laments.
“I already have knee and back problems, I start at 6 a.m. for a small salary” and “I am on my sixth day of strike”, declares, in the Parisian procession, Mariama Traore, 35 years, a CFDT union member who works in cleanliness. “But it’s worth it. We must continue, must not despair, we will not let it go, it’s not over tomorrow, even if there are fewer of us, ”she assures.
“We will continue until the withdrawal! launches the CGT Cheminots delegate Damien Scali during an improvised demonstration at the Euralille shopping center, where the railway workers received reinforcement from Lille students.
“We already have a first victory, we feel that the population is with us”, underlines, in Rennes, Laurence Turbé, 55-year-old secondary school teacher and member of Snes-FSU, the first union of colleges and high schools.
“We will have to pass on ever more systematic blockages since we are never heard when we demonstrate”, estimates, in Lyon, Thibaud, 46, activist of the NPA, the far left party.
The goal now is that the reform, even adopted by Parliament, is “never applied”, as was the case for the law creating the CPE (first job contract) in 2006, under the Chirac presidency, says Pascal Michel , 58, CFDT activist, engineer in genetic research at Inserm, who marched in Strasbourg.

3:37 p.m. – Borne “convinced” that senators and deputies “can agree” on pension reform

Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne said she was “convinced” that the senators and deputies meeting this Wednesday in a joint joint committee “can agree” on her highly contested pension reform. “I have the greatest respect for the parliamentary work which is continuing at this very moment in the joint committee. And I am convinced that the Senate and the National Assembly can agree on a project that will guarantee the future of our pay-as-you-go pensions,” she declared before the Senate.

3:25 p.m. – Declining mobilization in Marseille

In Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), 7,000 people marched according to the prefecture, 160,000 according to the inter-union. On March 7, the peak of the protest, the police had counted 30,000 demonstrators and the unions 245,000.

3:05 p.m. – SNCF: 15% of strikers at midday

The provisional rate of strikers approached 15% Wednesday noon at the SNCF according to a union source, a figure down sharply compared to March 7 (39%), during the ninth day of the renewable strike. The number of strikers is roughly equivalent to that of February 16, during the winter holidays when the mobilization had reached a low point within the staff of the public group.

2:42 p.m. – Civil service: the rate of strikers drops to less than 3% at midday

The rate of strikers mobilized on Wednesday against the pension reform fell to less than 3% in the state civil service at midday, against nearly 25% during the big day of mobilization on March 7, according to the ministry. of the Public Service. In the territorial public service (2 million agents, against 2.5 million state agents), the rate of strikers also fell, from 11% on March 7 to 2.2% on Wednesday. In the hospital side (1.2 million agents), only 4.5% of agents are on strike at midday against 9.4% on March 7.

2:35 p.m. – Postponement of the legal age to 64 validated by the mixed commission

The parliamentarians meeting in a joint joint committee unsurprisingly adopted the famous article 7 of the pension reform project, which provides for the postponement of the legal age from 62 to 64 years. Supporters of this decline in the legal age are clearly in the majority in the composition of this commission, bringing together 7 senators and 7 deputies. If the commission was conclusive, the text resulting from the instance should still be submitted Thursday to the votes of the Senate and the Assembly.