PARIS (Portal) – Protesters took to the streets on Saturday in a seventh day of demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pension reform plan in France, but not in the large numbers authorities had expected.
The protests – and rolling strikes that have affected refineries, public transport and garbage disposal – aim to pressure the government to withdraw the pension plan, the main measure of which is raising the retirement age by two years to 64.
According to the Interior Ministry, 368,000 demonstrators marched through various cities. Authorities had expected up to 1 million people to attend the demonstrations.
As with the previous protests, the events on Saturday were free of major scuffles with the police.
According to government figures, 1.28 million people took to the streets on Tuesday, the highest turnout since the protest movement began.
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The government insists its reform plan is essential to ensure the pension system doesn’t run out of money and has said it will not budge. The Senate, the upper house of parliament, continued examining the reform bill over the weekend and could vote on the text by Sunday night to bring it closer to passage.
In a joint statement, French unions, which have staged a rare show of unity since the protest movement began in late January, called on the government to organize a “citizens’ consultation” as soon as possible.
The unions plan to keep up the pressure “and prove again and again that the vast majority of the population remains determined to say no to the proposed law,” they said.
Opinion polls show that a majority of voters oppose Macron’s plan, while a narrow majority support the strike action.
[1/10] Demonstrators take part in a march against the government’s pension reform plan in Paris, France, March 11, 2023. Portal/Benoit Tessier
An additional day of nationwide strikes and protests was planned for Wednesday, which could coincide with a crucial step in the legislative process.
LOWER POWER DUE TO STRIKES
The right-wing Senate, which aligns with Macron’s centrist Renaissance Party, is likely to vote in favor of the pension plan. It would then likely be reviewed by a joint committee of lower house and upper house lawmakers on Wednesday.
If the committee agrees on a text, a final vote in both chambers would likely take place soon after, but the outcome of that vote still seems uncertain in the lower chamber, the National Assembly, where Macron’s party needs the votes of allies for a majority.
“A lot can still happen next week,” Marylise Leon, deputy general secretary of the CFDT union, the country’s largest, told Radio Franceinfo. “Will the text be voted on in the National Assembly? We must unite. Now or never.”
A spokesman for TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) told Portal that strikes at the oil major’s French refineries and depots are ongoing, while public rail operator SNCF said national and regional services would remain severely disrupted over the weekend.
Rubbish continues to pile up on the streets of Paris, with residents noticing an increasing presence of rats, according to local media.
National electricity generation in France was reduced by 7.1 gigawatts (GW), or 14%, at nuclear, thermal and hydroelectric plants on Saturday due to the strikes, a spokesman for the CGT union told Portal.
Maintenance has also been blocked at six French nuclear reactors, including Penly 1, the spokesman added.
Reporting by Tangi Salaun, Forrest Crellin and Benoit Van Overstraeten Editing by Mike Harrison and Frances Kerry
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