Pension reform: now, “the battle is being played out in the street”, says a minister


Jacques Serais, edited by Yanis Darras
modified to

07:21, January 25, 2023

Presented at the beginning of January, the pension reform continues to stir up opposition from a large majority of French people and trade unions. If neither the president nor the government want to back down on the subject after the important mobilization of January 19 in front of the cameras, outside the media scene, certain members of the government are worried.

Will the street be right about the pension reform? After a first day of mobilization on January 19, which brought together more than a million people in the streets according to the government, and nearly two million according to the CGT, the members of the executive are wondering.

If Emmanuel Macron does not set any threshold of demonstrators from which he would be ready to review his position, some ministers are less categorical and show some concern off the microphone. “I fear that there are more and more people” confesses a government minister.

“We have to keep up with the times”

“The risk”, still according to this member of the government, “is that this pension reform ends like the First Hire Contract, CPE”. A project which was to create a contract of indefinite duration and intended for those under 26 but which in April 2006, faced with the significant mobilization of high school and university students, was abandoned by the Prime Minister at the time, Dominique of Villepin. The bill was withdrawn only two months after it was passed in parliament.

Hence this analysis of another heavyweight of Macronie: “Whether we like it or not, the battle is being played today in the street and not in Parliament”. And the calls for a strike which are multiplying, in particular at the SNCF for next February 7 and 8, will affect the French in the middle of the school holiday period, which is not going to reassure this deputy of the majority: “Now, we must hold up over time,” he concludes.



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