Demonstration in Avigon (south) against pension reform, February 16, 2023 (AFP / CHRISTOPHE SIMON)
“We believe in the withdrawal of this reform”: with fewer but still determined demonstrators, the unions mobilize Thursday for the fifth time against the pension reform project to maintain pressure on the deputies, who still hope to be able to debate the legal age by Friday midnight thanks to the withdrawal of numerous amendments.
In the middle of school holidays, with the exception of Ile-de-France and Occitania, the mobilization is expected to decline, the unions projecting themselves towards March 7, where they have promised to “put France at the stop”.
“I believe that the day is already successful”, with “a lot of participants”, however estimated the general secretary of the CFDT, Laurent Berger. “The discontent, the determination and the combativeness are intact”, he assured from Albi, where the numbers one of the eight main unions are demonstrating, to “turn the spotlight” on this France of very mobilized medium-sized cities.
In these cities “the question of pensions is a bit the straw that breaks the camel’s back”, in addition to the problems of purchasing power, and the feeling of a decline in public services, said Philippe Martinez , his CGT counterpart. “Elected officials cannot be indifferent when there are so many people on the street,” he said.
– “Quiches” –
In Montpellier, the ranks were much more sparse than for the 4th day of mobilization on Saturday (7,200 participants against 20,000 according to the authorities). Same thing in Toulouse, where the organizers counted 65,000 demonstrators, and the police 14,000 (against 100,000 and 25,000 on Saturday). In Le Havre, there were 5,800 according to the prefecture, 20,000 according to the unions (7,800 and 20,000 on Saturday).
In the Marseille procession, where the inter-union reported 90,000 demonstrators, and the authorities 7,000 (against 140,000 and 12,000 on Saturday), Isabelle Marilier, a 75-year-old retiree, denounced a “deception” by the government on the minimum pension at 1,200 euros: “They take us for quiches!”.
Disruptions are limited in transport, with 14% of strikers at the SNCF and normal traffic in the Paris metro. However, flights were canceled and EDF agents lowered electricity production, without causing power cuts. In education, the ministry reported 7.67% of teachers on strike (against 14.17% on February 7) with two out of three areas on vacation.
Pension reform: course of the demonstration in Paris (AFP / Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA)
The police expect between 450 and 650,000 people in the street, including 40 to 70,000 in Paris.
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.
– “We block everything” –
After several days of fruitless grapple, the deputies are approaching the home stretch of the debates until Friday midnight, the cutoff time for the examination of the text before its transmission to the Senate.
To speed up, the left has decided to withdraw thousands of amendments since Wednesday. But between 4,000 and 5,000 still remained to be examined at midday before the deputies arrived at the article on the age measurement.
Nupes deputies in the Assembly during a session devoted to the pension reform project, February 15, 2023 (AFP / Ludovic MARIN)
If some hope “to vote as quickly as possible” on Article 7, like the socialist Philippe Brun, part of the left fears that a ballot will “deal a blow to the social movement”, according to the communist Andre Chassaigne.
“They are afraid of the vote”, replied Aurore Bergé (Renaissance), convinced that the majority “will have the votes” to pass this key article which “returns to voting for the reform”.
“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”, said its leader Marine Le Pen.
And thus respond to Emmanuel Macron who was ironic in the Council of Ministers on Wednesday about oppositions which “no longer have a compass”.
Balloons from the CGT and CFDT unions during a demonstration against the pension reform, at Place de la Nation in Paris, on February 11, 2023 (AFP/Archives/Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
Vote or not, the unions already have March 7 in sight. “We will try to make it a huge day of mobilization,” said Mr. Berger.
“On March 7, everything is blocked, everything must stop everywhere”, supported Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) from the Montpellier procession.
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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