Demonstration against pension reform in Albi on February 16, 2023 (AFP / CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)
With fewer but still determined demonstrators, the unions mobilized for the fifth time on Thursday against the pension reform project, wishing to maintain pressure on deputies who no longer have much hope of being able to debate the legal age. before Friday midnight.
“There is uncertainty, it’s + are we going to vote for this reform? +”, noted on RTL in the evening the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt. “We discuss everything and just about anything, except reform,” he lamented.
In the middle of school holidays, with the exception of Ile-de-France and Occitania, the mobilization appeared to be on the decline, the unions projecting themselves towards March 7, where they promised to “put France on the line”. ‘stop”.
The CGT claimed 1.3 million demonstrators, the lowest figure since the start of the mobilization on January 19.
The general secretaries of the CGT Philippe Martinez and the CFDT Laurent Berger on February 16, 2023 in Albi (AFP / CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)
The leaders of the eight main French unions had decided to demonstrate in Albi to “shining the spotlight” on this France of very mobilized medium-sized cities, according to the secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger.
“The discontent, the determination and the combativeness are intact”, he assured before the start of the demonstration, which brought together 10,000 people according to the prefecture and 50,000 according to the unions – as much as the number of inhabitants of this city. .
“Elected officials cannot be indifferent when there are so many people in the street,” said his CGT counterpart, Philippe Martinez.
– “Faithful to the post” –
In most cities, the ranks were more sparse than for the 4th day of mobilization on Saturday, as in Toulouse, where the police counted 14,000 people (against 25,000 on Saturday) or Lille, where they were 3,500, against 10,700 on Saturday.
The Paris procession brought together 300,000 people according to the CGT, 37,000 according to the prefecture, and 33,000 according to the cabinet Occurrence. Among them, Estelle Hue Le Cloître, 47, an SNCF employee, said she put “a lot of hope” on March 7.
Pension reform: course of the demonstration in Paris (AFP / Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA)
“The idea today is not to make numbers, but to maintain the breath”, said the N.2 of the CFDT, Marylise Léon.
Disruptions remained limited in transport. However, flights were canceled and EDF agents lowered electricity production, without causing power cuts. In education, the rate of strikers was lower than on February 7th.
Failing to influence the executive, the inter-union sent a letter to parliamentarians, apart from those of the RN, to ask them to reject the reform “and more particularly its article 7”, which brings the decline in the legal age of departure from 62 to 64 years.
– “Confession” of LFI –
Demonstration in Albi against the pension reform on February 16, 2023 (AFP / CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)
After several days of fruitless tussles, the deputies approach the home stretch of the debates until Friday midnight, the cutoff time for the examination of the text before its transmission to the Senate.
Alone to still maintain thousands of amendments which slow down the debates, rebellious France justified its position Thursday evening by the voice of Jean-Luc Mélenchon: “Incomprehensible withdrawal of the amendments of the PCF. Why rush to article 7? The rest of the law doesn’t count? Can’t wait to get beat up?” he tweeted.
The Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal denounced a “rocking” and a “confession” by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who wants to “draw out the debates”.
Olivier Dussopt was again questioned by the left on the “fuzziness” of the figures concerning the consequences of the reform. “It’s the Dracula reform: the more we light it up, the more it turns to ashes,” quipped PS deputy Jérôme Guedj.
Demonstration against the pension reform in Paris on February 16, 2023 (AFP / Emmanuel DUNAND)
“It’s lamentable what is happening in Parliament”, “it has to move forward”, declared in Albi the president of the CFTC Cyril Chabanier, in unison with the inter-union.
For its part, the RN tabled a motion of censure on Wednesday, to find out who is “for or against the reform”, according to its leader Marine Le Pen.
And thus respond to Emmanuel Macron who was ironic on Wednesday about oppositions which “no longer have a compass”.
Vote or not, the unions have in mind the day of March 7 which Mr. Berger envisages as “a huge day of mobilization”.
Demonstration against the pension reform in Paris on February 16, 2023 (AFP / Anne-Christine POUJOULAT)
Other actions are planned the next day on International Women’s Day. The main youth organizations also announce a day of mobilization on the 9th.
What to give desires of renewable strikes from March 7th. If the inter-union has not called for it, certain confederations like Solidaires are in favor of it. The RATP unions have already announced it as well as the CGT garbage collectors.
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© 2023 AFP
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