(Paris) A new day of action against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform, the 11th since January, began Thursday in France in an increasingly tense climate between the trade unions and the executive, which is betting on a shortness of movement.
The disruptions and the number of strikers are already expected to be less significant than during previous days of action, particularly in transport, which is more fluid, and in education, where the ministry has identified less than 8% of strikes. striking teachers.
But the unions are counting on a massive mobilization in the processions organized during the day in France against the raising of the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. “There is a big protest” against this reform which “still does not pass”, underlined the boss of the reformist union CFDT, Laurent Berger.
The authorities are planning a less massive mobilization, with between 600,000 and 800,000 people, including 60,000 to 90,000 in Paris. A total of 11,500 police and gendarmes will be mobilized, while the last processions have been marred by tensions.
Blockages of high schools and university sites occurred Thursday morning in Lyon (east), Rennes (west), Lille (north) or Paris, including that of the prestigious Sorbonne University.
Blockades at the gates of major cities have also caused traffic jams.
Despite the breathlessness of the strikes after almost three months of arm wrestling, demonstrators still show unfailing determination, like Davy Chrétien, in Marseille (south): “We still haven’t given up and we’re not going to do it,” warns the 50-year-old territorial official.
For its part, the government is hunkering down pending the decision of the Constitutional Council, which will rule on April 14 on the constitutionality of this very unpopular reform. This high jurisdiction can censure the law, validate it totally or partially.
The flagship project of Emmanuel Macron’s second term is on track after being adopted by forceps on March 20 after weeks of demonstrations and sterile negotiations in the National Assembly.
The use of a constitutional mechanism allowing adoption without a vote in Parliament did not disarm the opposition and the unions. On the contrary, relations between the head of state and the social partners, in particular the reformist central CFDT, are turning sour.
A meeting on Wednesday between Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and the inter-union – counting 8 organizations – came to an end, the unions speaking of “failure”, the CGT even speaking of a “obtuse, radicalized and disconnected government”.
From China, Emmanuel Macron for his part replied via his entourage by insisting on a project “democratically supported” and by rejecting the responsibility for the failure of the dialogue on the unions, in particular the CFDT, which “did not want to enter in a compromise”.
“I say ‘stop the provocation’. It doesn’t make sense, we’re not in a ring. I’m not the problem, “CFDT boss Laurent Berger retorted on RTL radio on Thursday, saying that Mr. Macron had “the solution in his hands”.
“We disagree, not at war,” assured Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt.
An inter-union is scheduled for the evening to decide on a new day of mobilization before the decision of the Constitutional Council.
Laurent Berger hopes the Elders will censure “the whole law” on April 14. The Council can validate the project, censure it partially or totally.
Politically, the conflict seems to be turning to the advantage of Marine Le Pen’s far right, opposed to reform, but discreet since the beginning of the conflict.
According to a poll published on Wednesday, 47% of French people consider that the leader of the National Rally “has the stature of a president of the republic”, up 5 points in one year, and that she is “capable of reforming the country (51%, 8 points).
