Pension reform: Rennes still under tension during a demonstration on Saturday

Vandalized shops, burned car, clashes with the police: a regional demonstration against the pension reform, Saturday in Rennes, was once again marked by numerous clashes, the day after violence in the historic center. More than a thousand people, mostly young people, had gathered calmly at the beginning of the afternoon on Place de la République, at the call in particular of Rennes collectives on social networks.

An “unauthorized” demonstration according to the prefecture. Less than half an hour after the departure of the procession, the situation became tense, according to AFP journalists on the spot. Targeted by projectile fire from young people dressed in black, the police responded with numerous tear gas shots and the intervention of a water cannon. A mobile gendarme was injured during these clashes, according to the prefecture. Eight people were arrested shortly after 5 p.m.

After the pensions, “we are determined to accelerate” the reforms, says Elisabeth Borne

“We are determined to accelerate” the reforms after that of pensions, assured Elisabeth Borne during a speech to the National Council of the Renaissance party, Saturday in Paris, two days before Emmanuel Macron’s speech. “We want to build a France of full employment”, “guarantee equal opportunities”, “act” for health and even education, hammered the Prime Minister. She spoke for the first time since the partial validation of the pension reform by the Constitutional Council, followed by its promulgation by the President of the Republic. “Today, there is neither winner nor loser. There is a difficult reform, I know that. A reform that requires efforts from many of our compatriots, I am aware of that. But a reform that takes into account of each person’s situation. A necessary reform to guarantee the future of our pay-as-you-go system”, declared the Prime Minister.

After consulting with the political forces at the request of the Head of State, the Prime Minister hinted at a status quo, while the executive lacks an absolute majority in the National Assembly. “I am convinced that if the time is not for coalitions, majorities are possible, project by project, to offer solutions to the French,” she said. Weakened since the adoption of the reform by 49.3 in the Assembly, after the rejection by only nine votes of a motion of censure against her government, Ms. Borne advocated “humility”, “respect”, “attention” for ” to listen to our compatriots”. “To achieve this, I believe in a principle: the overcoming” between the right and the left, “the very identity of our party” Renaissance, she once again reaffirmed. “Of course, we are going to come up against those who are nostalgic for old divisions, those who prefer to deny themselves rather than build with us, those who sacrifice the interest of the country to go with the wind. But we will never be the camp of renunciation”, assured the head of government.

New overflows in Rennes

On the Place de la République where they were confined, thugs notably damaged the front of a CIC bank branch. Furniture and computers were taken out onto the sidewalk and set on fire. They also ransacked the lobby of a nearby Mercure hotel, tagging “the bourgeois at the RSA” on the facade of the establishment. A car parked in a car park adjacent to Place de la République was completely set on fire, another partially burned and several premium brand vehicles had their windows smashed. Various trash can fires were also lit. The demonstration was framed by a large police force, the day after a series of overflows in the center of the city where the doors of a police station and a former convent converted into a congress center, the Couvent des Jacobins, had been burnt down, and many shop fronts vandalized.

“I don’t want to be the generation that let this reform pass”, explained to AFP Benoît, 24, who participated in almost all the demonstrations against the pension reform. The young man expresses his anger at having discovered on waking that President Emmanuel Macron had promulgated the law overnight, a few hours after the validation of the essentials of the reform by the Constitutional Council. “Learning when you wake up that he did it quietly in the night, it’s abused. It continues in the tradition of someone totalitarian and who does not want to respect popular speech”, he adds.

Three men were taken into custody after the clashes on Friday evening in the center of Rennes. The prosecution, which denounced “serious” events, seized the territorial direction of the judicial police of Rennes for “degradation by fire” of these two buildings, “under the qualification of degradation by dangerous means and association of criminals”. The center of Rennes has been regularly the scene of numerous violence between the police and demonstrators, accompanied by damage to shops or street furniture, since the start of the movement against pension reform. The Ministry of the Interior announced Friday evening the dispatch to the Breton capital, from Saturday, of the CRS 8, based in Bièves (Essonne) and specialized in urban violence.

Emmanuel Macron will speak Monday evening in a speech, announced the Elysée

Emmanuel Macron will make a televised “speech” on Monday evening, a priori at 8 p.m., the Elysee Palace announced on Saturday, just after the promulgation of the pension reform, still highly contested. “The President will address the French during a speech on Monday evening,” said the Elysee, without specifying a schedule. The Head of State intends to quickly relaunch his second five-year term, hampered by the social and political crisis.

Emmanuel Macron will speak “in a logic of appeasement”, to “take stock” of the three months of crisis, and “also look at what has advanced alongside pensions”, promised government spokesman Olivier Véran , citing the drop in unemployment and taxes, the increase in the number of apprentices, etc.

The promulgation of the law is a new sign of “contempt”, judge the CFDT and the CGT

The promulgation of the pension reform, with its flagship measure of lowering the retirement age to 64, is a new sign of “contempt”, judged in turn on Saturday the number one of the CFDT Laurent Berger and his counterpart of the CGT Sophie Binet.

The promulgation of the law in the Official Journal during the night from Friday to Saturday the day after the decision of the Constitutional Council “confirms the violent contempt of the President of the Republic both for the population and then in particular for the trade unions”, has declared the secretary general of the CGT Sophie Binet on Franceinfo, while Laurent Berger declared on Twitter: “from the start, the contempt returned to the workers will have been constant. But their dignity in the street is stronger.”

Night and day, this reform is unfair! Democratic wisdom demanded not to promulgate it and to renew the dialogue. From the beginning, the contempt returned to the workers will have been constant. But their dignity in the street is stronger. See you on #May1st

— Laurent Berger (@CfdtBerger) April 15, 2023

The SNCF unions propose a day of “railway anger” on Thursday

The four representative unions of the SNCF called on Saturday for a “day of expression of railway anger” next Thursday, presented as a “preparatory stage” for the demonstrations of May 1, shortly after the express promulgation of the pension reform. “The nocturnal promulgation of the law does not change our fight at all. We will not move on until this law is abandoned,” said CGT-Cheminots, Unsa-Ferroviaire, SUD in a press release. -Rail and CFDT-Cheminots, who have been on strike since March 7.

Before the parades on May 1, the trade unions “propose, as a preparation step, to make next April 20 a day of expression of railway anger (…) including in an interprofessional framework”, they indicate. This date falls on the eve of school holidays in the Paris and Occitan regions and a crossover weekend in the other areas which are already on vacation.

Denouncing the “brutality of the reform” and the government’s “arm of honor” despite the many days of mobilization, the inter-union believes that “social violence, orchestrated by the government and the president of the rich, urges us to remain mobilized “. The unions are betting on the traditional meeting of May 1 which they wish to transform into “a day of exceptional and popular mobilization” against the heart of the reform, retirement at 64.

Olivier Dussopt does not see why it would have been necessary to wait to promulgate the law

The Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt said on Saturday that he did not see “what difference it made” to wait to enact the law on pension reform despite the outcry from the unions furious at such a rapid “passage in force”. “What difference did it make to wait three days, four days or five days, while the text is validated”, estimated Olivier Dussopt on French Culture. “The law is voted, validated and therefore it must be published as it is,” he added.

“The constitution says that when the Constitutional Council has given its opinion, the President of the Republic must promulgate it within fifteen days,” he said. “We have chosen to promulgate immediately after the decision, as is the case for all State finance or Social Security laws. They are always promulgated within 24 hours of the Council’s opinion. constitutional”. For the minister, “it is a step that is taken with the decision of the Constitutional Council”, and “there is no democratic or political crisis”.