Unions threaten to “paralyze” the country in a march against the pension reform

First modification: 02/11/2023 – 11:38Last modification: 02/11/2023 – 17:33

“If, despite all the government and legislators, they still do not listen to the popular rejection, the inter-union will call (…) to paralyze all sectors in France on March 7,” said the leader of the FO union, Frédéric Souillot.

The warning took place in the framework of a fourth day of protests in France since the beginning of the year. Pending official data, the CGT union announced that there were 500,000 protesters in Paris, where there were some incidents with the police.

The objective is for the Executive to withdraw its proposal to delay the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and to advance to 2027 the requirement to contribute 43 years (and not 42 as now) in order to receive a full pension.

A majority of French people – two out of three, according to polls – oppose the reform, with which the Government seeks to bring the retirement age closer to that of its neighbors in Europe and avoid a future deficit in the pension fund.

“I find it hard to believe that the government will not listen to this important rejection” in a “difficult context” of inflation for citizens, said Gaëlle Leroy-Careto, 47, at the march held in Paris in a festive atmosphere.

This social worker came with her husband, her daughter, her sister and her nephew. “We are demonstrating for our pensions and that of our children,” said the woman, recalling that in 2010 she had already gone from 60 to 62 years old and predicting that within 10 she could go to 70.

The demonstrations on January 31 – between 1.27 and 2.8 million people – were the most popular against social reform in France in three decades, but the government did not back down.

“Lock down the economy”

Everything now points to a hardening of the protest as of March 6, when the winter school holidays end. After another strike on February 16, the first major action of this cycle change is expected on March 7.

The public transport unions in Paris called this Saturday for an extendable strike in the RATP as of that day to “block the economy” and the CGT union center has already talked about a similar measure in the train service.

The last time a pension reform was halted in France was in 1995, when center-right Prime Minister Alain Juppé had to back down after a general strike that paralyzed transport for three weeks.

The day before, the 45-year-old centrist president asked the unions for “responsibility” for not blocking the country and wanted the debate to take place in Parliament, estimating that “this is how democracy should work.”

Tension is highest in the Assembly between the left-wing opposition Nupes -led by the leftist Jean-Luc Mélénchon- and Macron’s alliance, which lacks an absolute majority and expects support from the right-wing opposition Republicans (LR) for its reform under review.

But he has an ace up his sleeve: The chosen parliamentary method allows him to apply it from the end of March, if the two chambers of Parliament, the Assembly and the Senate, do not get to vote on it before the thousands of amendments presented.

“Whatever the result of this reform, there is no doubt that the Executive will come out weakened in public opinion and it is not at all clear that the opposition will come out stronger,” the Odoxa polling company estimated on Thursday.

The unions fear that the adoption of the measure will generate “social despair” that will benefit the extreme right at the polls. The far-right Marine Le Pen, opposed to the reform, already contested the runoff against Macron in 2017 and 2022.

Half of the flights canceled in Orly

Due to the “surprise stoppage” of air traffic controllers in Paris, the cancellation of half of the flights scheduled for Saturday afternoon at the Parisian Orly airport was announced.

In a statement, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) confirmed that it has asked airlines to reduce their flight schedule by 50% this Saturday.

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At the same time, he assured that “disturbances and delays” are expected due to “a certain number of strikers.”

According to the information shared by the DGAC to EFE, no other French airport has been affected by the stoppage of the controllers and neither have the planes that fly over French airspace to and from other countries.

Companies that operate from Orly, the second largest airport in France, mainly fly to southern European countries and other French cities.

AFP