“France will be at a standstill” promise the unions. Between the continuation of the debates on the pension reform bill in the Senate – as well as the expected vote on the postponement of the legal retirement age – and the mobilization of March 7, it is a crucial week that is announcement for Emmanuel Macron and his government. François Ruffin, deputy “Picardy standing” of the Somme will be alongside the demonstrators. “Seven out of ten French people have been saying no to this reform for months. President Macron and Élisabeth Borne do not hear it, so unfortunately, we are there [et] I think if it’s the boss of Amazon, who picks up his phone and says ‘Mr Macron, stop your nonsense’, I think Mr Macron is better able to listen to Jeff Bezos to whom he handed over the Legion of honor, than to listen to the French who work”, he launched at the microphone of Europe 1.
“This France deserves respect”
Between 1.1 and 1.4 million demonstrators could march everywhere in France on Tuesday. “I want the month of March to go into our History of France. It’s a book that has a blank page, now it’s up to the people who are listening to me to write it or not”, continued the deputy, specifying that the postponement of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 should no longer be part of the pension reform. “It’s extremely unfair to push back like this.”
According to François Ruffin, “beyond the demand for pensions, there is the demand for salaries”. “The France that shows up is a France that gets up early, it’s a France that goes to work, it’s a France that takes its car and it’s a France that has back pain. This France- there, I think she deserves respect. Tomorrow is a pride march,” he added.
The French suffer the “double penalty”
The government, which puts the value of “work” at the center of its communication, “crushes it every day in practice”. These French who demonstrate know “the double penalty” explained the deputy of the Somme. “Instead of having recognition and remuneration, there is a double penalty for this France. The first, inflation. The second, two additional years of work.”
“My goal is to put France back on its feet. When we have teachers recruited through job dating, when we have a hospital that is in tatters, when we have trains that don’t arrive on time, when we have power stations which lack welders to repair them, we can clearly see that today we have a France which needs to be put back on its feet”, assured François Ruffin at the microphone of Europe 1. For the deputy, “the government had heaps of warnings”, it is now time to “put France on hold” to be heard.