31 Jan. () –
France has started this Tuesday a new day of strikes and mobilizations against the pension reform promoted by the Government, without major incidents but with complications in transport and blockades in hundreds of educational centers.
Again, the big unions have joined their voices to try to repeat the success of January 19. The Government has mobilized 11,000 gendarmes and police officers -a thousand more than on the first day of strikes- waiting for the more than 200 rallies called in the main cities of the country.
The unions are charging against a reform that, among other measures, contemplates raising the retirement age to 64 years. The workers’ associations consider it unfair, while for the Executive and the president, Emmanuel Macron, they are necessary changes that, in reality, come late within the European framework.
“If the government does not change, there will be consequences,” warned the general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), Philippe Martinez, in an interview with BFM TV. Martinez, who has accused the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, of using a “provocative” tone by ruling out changes in the main axes of the reform.
Martinez does not rule out a third day of protests, waiting to see how those on Tuesday evolve, with Paris as the main focus. The authorities foresee between 1 and 1.2 million protesters in total, according to a confidential report collected by Franceinfo.
OPPOSITION CRITICISM
The reform does not like the political opposition either, to the right and left of Macron. The former candidate for the presidency of La Francia Insumisa (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon has stressed on Twitter that this Tuesday “is not a normal day”, but rather represents the drive of a citizenry that “defends its right to a human existence against the caste and its government”.
For the mayoress of Paris, the socialist Anne Hidalgo, the changes in the pension system anticipate “an unfair and brutal regression.” “Faced with the systematic destruction of our social conquests, we will never resign ourselves,” Hidalgo has proclaimed, who has closed the City Hall as a sign of “solidarity.”
