The French are called on Thursday for a ninth day of mobilization in two months against a very unpopular pension reform passed with pincers, the day after a speech by President Emmanuel Macron that electrified unions and the opposition.
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Opponents of this reform are being called on by unions to take to the streets and strike for the ninth time since January 19 and for the first time nationally since the government’s forced entry into the National Assembly, which fueled them.
During a much-anticipated television interview on Wednesday, after weeks of social tensions, Emmanuel Macron insisted that this reform – the flagship of his second five-year term – should be implemented “before the end of the year” as he believes it will be “unpopular”.
“This reform is not a pleasure, it is not a luxury, it is a necessity,” he asserted, citing the defense of “the general interest” in the face of the financial deterioration of pension funds and the aging of the population.
The most important measure of this reform, which crystallizes the anger, is the lowering of the statutory retirement age from 62 to 64 years.
France is one of the European countries where this legal age is the lowest, without the systems being fully comparable.
Opponents of this reform consider it “unfair”, especially for women and those in difficult jobs.
Several lockdowns took place on Wednesday, affecting oil depots, ports, roads, air transport, the gas sector and universities.
At the national level, the fuel situation is deteriorating slightly, with about 14% of service stations running short of at least one type of fuel, up from 12% on Tuesday and 7.13% dry from 6% on Tuesday.
Only one in four TotalEnergies refineries is operational in France.
The level of kerosene supplies to the Paris region and its airports from Normandy (west) “is becoming critical,” the energy transition ministry told AFP on Thursday, which is poised to requisition strikers.
The Directorate-General for Civil Aviation (DGAC) is asking airlines to cancel 30% of their flights at Paris-Orly and 20% at other airports by Thursday.
The ports of Marseille-Fos (south) and Brest (west) were completely closed on Wednesday at the request of the powerful trade union CGT.
On Thursday, the national railway company SNCF can only run half of its high-speed trains and a third of its regional express trains.
The traffic of the Paris underground and suburban trains is expected to be “very disturbed”.
The Paris garbage collectors’ strike, which began on March 6, will be extended until Monday.
On Wednesday, President Macron confirmed he would not dissolve the National Assembly, reshuffle the government, or call a referendum on his maligned reform.
He said he wanted to “restart” dialogue with social partners on the relationship with work “in a couple of days, a couple of weeks” when tensions subside.
Immediate reply from the leader of the reformist union CFDT Laurent Berger: “These are empty words, at the moment there is a great social conflict, a democratic crisis, a social crisis,” he told AFP.
Analysts believe this reform and the protests it sparked will leave an indelible mark on this second five-year term.
“At the end of a mobilization, a conflict like this, we can’t believe that we’re going to erase things,” admitted Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt on Thursday. “There is a before and an after, there is a disagreement that will exist about the age of retirement,” about the pension, “but there are issues that allow renewal with a dialogue,” he said on RTL Radio.
Since March 16, the day the executive branch resorted to Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allowed a text to be adopted without a vote, the challenge has shown signs of radicalization.
In Paris in particular, tense clashes between demonstrators and the police break out every evening. Almost a thousand people were arrested.