Demonstrators march in Reims, March 7, 2023, against the pension reform (AFP / François NASCIMBENI)
The unions, which are playing their all-out against the government a few days before a probable adoption of the pension reform in the Senate, welcomed Tuesday a “historic mobilization”, calling on the government not to “remain deaf”, even if the rates of strikers remained a little below the records.
For this sixth day of action against the pension reform, the unions had announced that they wanted to put France “at a standstill”.
At the start of the Paris demonstration, the secretary general of the CFDT Laurent Berger welcomed a “historic mobilization with regard to the last 40 or 50 years” with around “20%” more demonstrators than during the day of January 31.
This had brought together 1.27 million participants according to the authorities, 2.5 million according to the organizers.
In the middle of the afternoon, the CGT estimated the number of demonstrators in Paris at 700,000, more than during previous days of action.
The government “cannot remain deaf” to this mobilization against the postponement of the legal age of departure from 62 to 64, insisted the leader of the CFDT, while the leader of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, warned the executive against “a forced passage (which) would only ignite the powder”.
In Lyon (well Lyon), Audrey Sivadon, a 27-year-old engineer, and Gabrielle Laloy Borgna, a 26-year-old doctoral student, who participated in almost all the previous demonstrations expressed their hope that they could still change things, despite the inflexibility of the executive. “The reform will pass, then will it be implemented?” Asked Gabrielle Laloy Borgna. “We still have an ounce of hope, otherwise we wouldn’t be here,” added Audrey Sivadon.
But the rates of strikers remained a little below the best scores recorded since the beginning of the movement, among railway workers (39% against 46.3% on January 19) as among teachers.
In the state civil service as a whole, nearly one in four agents was on strike, against 28% during the first day of action on January 19, and 19.4% on January 31.
At EDF, the rate of strikers amounted to 41.5% of the overall workforce, against 44.5% on January 19 and 40.3% on January 31.
A new meeting of the inter-union is scheduled for the evening to decide on the follow-up to the movement. A new day of action on Saturday March 11 is already mentioned.
– Very supplied processions –
The SNCF plans a slightly improved transport offer for Wednesday, with a third of the trains in circulation for the TGV and TER, against a fifth on Tuesday. Thursday, traffic will again be “disturbed”, according to the company, all of whose unions have launched a renewable strike.
Everywhere in France, the processions were very provided on Tuesday, at a level comparable to the record mobilization of January 31. They were in particular between 6,000 (prefecture) and 30,000 (CGT) in Nice, between 13,000 and 23,000 in Bayonne, between 20,500 and 55,000 in Grenoble.
In Foix (9,000 inhabitants), the police counted 5,100 people, against 16,000 for the organizers.
In Marseille, where the day had started with the message “the hour is strike” written with the bomb on several walls of the city, the CGT reported 245,000 demonstrators (against 205,000 on January 31), 30,000 according to the prefecture ( 40,000 on January 31).
A few scuffles and projectile fire were reported, particularly in Paris, Nantes, or even Lyon and Rennes, where water launchers were used by the police.
A total of 10,500 police and gendarmes were mobilized in France on Tuesday, including 4,200 in Paris.
Numerous roadblocks were set up in the morning, from Perpignan to Miramas (Bouches-du-Rhône) via Poitiers or Rennes, where demonstrators blocked an important road axis causing “many damage” according to the prefecture.
Poll after poll, the vast majority of the French remain opposed to the emblematic measure of the reform, the postponement of the legal age of departure, even if they think that it will be implemented in fine.
This sixth day since the start of the protest movement marks the launch or continuation of renewable strikes in several sectors, from transport to refineries, including energy, trade and waste.
– Wild cuts –
In education, blockades took place in universities and high schools, and the ministry reported 32.71% of teachers on strike. The Snuipp-FSU, the leading primary union, has identified 60% of striking college and high school teachers.
The secretary general of CGT Energy, Sébastien Ménesplier, has forecast a “dark week” in the sector, with production cuts mainly in nuclear power.
“Wild” power cuts affected up to 4,000 inhabitants took place in the morning in Boulogne-sur-Mer and its surroundings, according to Enedis. More than 2,000 homes were also deprived of electricity in Annonay (Ardèche), the stronghold of Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt, according to the same source.
The Exxon-Mobil refinery in Port-Jérome, near Le Havre, on March 7, 2023, where fuel shipments are blocked (AFP / Lou BENOIST)
Fuel shipments were blocked Tuesday morning at the exit of “all refineries” in France (TotalEnergies, Esso-ExxonMobil and Petroineos), according to the CGT-Chimie union.
And in gas, three of the four LNG terminals in France were shut down for “seven days” on Monday by the unions.
The garbage collectors were also called to the renewable strike by the CGT. And three incineration plants near the capital (Ivry, Saint-Ouen and Issy) were blocked.
(AFP/Thomas SAMSON)
Unusually, river traffic on the Rhine was at a standstill due to the blockages of several locks.
The week will be interspersed with other mobilizations, in parallel with the debates in the Senate where the government is counting on the adoption of the reform by Sunday. He is considering “a vote on March 16” in both chambers.
“If the reform is adopted, it is unlikely that the mobilization will be maintained at this level”, anticipates a government source, which expects a disengagement of the reformist unions.
“The law is extremely important, but so is real democracy”, warned Laurent Berger, warning against a forced passage of 49.3 which would be “an unacceptable form of blockage”.
And for Philippe Martinez, a text “which is voted on by parliamentarians but which has such disapproval in public opinion” is not “valid”.
Faced with “the deadlock situation”, Emmanuel Macron must “find a way out from above”, “or else a dissolution” of the National Assembly, “or else a referendum”, pleaded Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) to Marseilles.
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© 2023 AFP
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