The eleventh protest against the pension law is lived in France

The meeting on Wednesday between the Government and the French unions failed. That is why the massive mobilization in the streets against the controversial pension reform approved by the Executive of Emmanuel Macron continues.

The government refuses to withdraw its reform, which delays the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and advances to 2027 the requirement to contribute 43 years, and not 42, to collect a full pension, something that two out of three French people reject, according to polls.

This day of mobilization in the streets seeks to maintain the pressure pending the decision of the Constitutional Council, the interpretation body of the French Magna Carta, which on April 14 must validate or not the law after its approval on March 16 without the vote of Parliament.

To begin with, the mobilizations will translate into strikes in sectors such as education and public transport, such as trains and public transport.

In Paris, metro traffic will be normal on most lines and the commuter train will see frequencies partially reduced.

As for flights, airports such as Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes will cut scheduled routes by 20%, but Parisian Orly, which had been quite affected on other occasions, will not have to cancel trips.

Difficulties also continue in the fuel sector, despite the forced mobilization of workers this week to alleviate supply problems, a situation that is expected to improve in the coming days.

The Government has provided for this eleventh day of protests a robust police device, although somewhat smaller than in other appointments. 11,500 agents will be deployed in the country, of which some 4,000 will be in Paris.

first requisition suspended

In parallel, an administrative court in the city of Rouen, in northern France, suspended this Thursday, April 6, the requisitions at a TotalEnergies refinery, where workers are on strike over pension reform, according to a report. court document.

This is the first search warrant annulled by a court during the protests.

Gonfreville’s Normandy refinery, France’s largest by output, has had to stop production operations due to the strike and has only been able to make deliveries when the government has requisitioned workers.

The court ruled that the requisition order from Wednesday to Thursday to ensure an adequate supply of gasoline ahead of the Easter weekend did not meet the legal threshold and was contrary to the right to strike.

The energy ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TotalEnergies declined to comment.

Democratic crisis?

On the other hand, the leader of the moderate CFDT union, Laurent Berger, blamed Emmanuel Macron for the situation, warning him of the “democratic crisis” that is taking place and of the “risk of the rise of the extreme right”.

The environment and the Government of Emmanuel Macron, a 45-year-old Liberal president, have wanted to replicate this statement by the unions and reject these allegations, which in their opinion are trying to delegitimize this project.

They stress that the reform was part of the program with which he achieved his re-election in 2022 with almost 59% of votes in the run-off against Le Pen.

“We are not in a democratic crisis,” stressed Thursday the government spokesman, Olivier Véran, who in an interview on the radio station France Inter said that he did not agree with the statements of the secretary general of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT, the first union in the country), Laurent Berger.

Véran insisted that the Executive has “respected the legal path” for the approval of the pension reform. He noted that its controversial adoption without submitting it to the vote of the deputies because there was not a sufficient majority in the National Assembly, relying on a device that has been used dozens of times in the past, “is constitutional.”

For his part, Macron, who is on an official visit to China, explained that “when a president with an elected majority, even a relative one, tries to carry out a democratically defended project, that is not called a democratic crisis.”

the path that follows

All eyes are on the Constitutional Council. His opinion on the validity or otherwise of the reform will mark the evolution of an entrenched social conflict that benefits, according to observers and polls, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

For Andolfatto, a “way out” for the continuity of the social movement, in case of validation of the reform, is for the “wise men” to accept the referendum on the retirement age requested by the leftist opposition, which would temporarily block the law .

Borne also multiplied contacts this week with political forces to try to achieve a stable majority in Parliament, but to no avail. The Republicans (right), allies in the pension battle, reject a global alliance with the ruling party.

The most radical position

The French unions warned the government of the president, Emmanuel Macron, on Thursday that they will maintain the pressure and their mobilizations as long as the pension reform is not withdrawn, even if the Constitutional Council validates it next week.

“Whatever happens, the mobilization will continue as long as the reform is not withdrawn,” stressed the new leader of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT, the country’s second largest central), Sophie Binet, at the beginning of the demonstration organized in Paris.

In a parallel line, the general secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT, the first union), Laurent Berger, stressed that “this movement continues to have the support of the population” and that “the rejection of this reform remains the same of strong”.

Berger anticipated that his union will not question the legitimacy of the opinion of the Constitutional Council on whether the law that formalizes the pension reform, “whether we like it or not.”

“The only solution is the withdrawal of this reform,” stressed at the beginning of the demonstration in Paris the new leader of the CGT union, Sophie Binet, for whom, in the face of “deep anger”, the government “does as if nothing” and ” lives in a parallel reality”.

Since March 7, when the unions mobilized 1.28 million people, according to the police, and 3.5 million, according to the CGT union, the demonstrations have run out of steam. On March 28, there were between 740,000 and more than two million, according to both sources.

With EFE, AFP and Reuters