Maximilian Carlier (in Lille)
“Justice, balance and progress”, three words displayed on the blue leaflets of the Renaissance party to convince the French of the merits of the pension reform. But a few days before a massive mobilization against the postponement of the retirement age, most of the Lille residents met are “hardly convinced”.
After the theory, place to the practical case. The majority must convince the French on the ground in the face of pension reform, and this, with three words displayed on blue leaflets: “Justice, balance and progress”. After the announcement of the postponement of the retirement age to 64, elected officials and supporters must provide after-sales service in the face of some opposition. On the forecourt of Lille-Flandres station this weekend, there are a dozen Renaissance activists to break through the crowd of travelers.
Pedagogy… which does not pass
The tone is intended to be educational: “A little reading on the pension reform”, launches a first activist to a passerby. “It’s a paper that explains the pension reform because we are from Emmanuel Macron’s party”, tries another. But opposite, there are sometimes yellow laughs and a lot of refusal. Because indeed according to an Ifop poll published this week, 68% of French people are against this reform and Lille are part of it. “It is difficult to be convinced. We all have our ideas and I will not change our minds”, concedes a passerby approached by the activists.
Pedagogical work is essential, admits Violette Spillebout, Renaissance MP for the ninth district of the North. “We absolutely have to explain this reform. That is really our job as MPs because sometimes, in those who are opposed to the program of the President of the Republic, to his project, well, we hear caricature , sometimes even untruths. And we have to do the job on the ground”, she explains. And finally, “few French people know what is in this pension reform”, she adds. “But we are ready to listen to the disgruntled without aggressiveness.”