Paris (AFP)

The tone mounts between the main players in the protest against the government's pension reform project Sunday, the eleventh day of a strike in transport, the day before a day of demonstrations called by all unions .

Sunday, the situation was still to be very disrupted in transport, and the substantive debate on pensions may be parasitized by the questioning in recent days of the High Commissioner for Pensions Jean-Paul Delevoye.

Weakened by suspicions of conflicts of interest after omissions in his declaration of interests, the latter rectified this document on Saturday and declared 13 terms, including 11 volunteers, according to Le Monde.

He received the support of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, removing the uncertainty that hovered over a possible resignation.

More and more worried about not seeing enough trains running at Christmas, the head of government severely criticized in the Parisien on Sunday the strikers, who are causing very significant disruption in transport.

"Christmas is an important time. Everyone will have to take responsibility. I don't think the French would accept that some people could deprive them of this moment," he said.

He added that he would not say "not that the whole country is on strike. It is not a total blockage".

The striking railway workers have already announced that they do not envisage a "truce" for the holiday season. "If the government wants the conflict to end before the holidays, it has all the next week to make the necessary common sense decision: the withdrawal of the reform by points," Laurent Brun told AFP on Saturday. secretary general of CGT-Cheminots (1st).

-"And that's all" -

Key element in the passage of the reform in opinion, the boss of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, also emerged on Sunday from the silence he had observed since his outburst on Wednesday, after the announcement that a measure of age was confirmed in the plan to reform the pension system.

Mr. Philippe announced the establishment of an "age of balance" at 64 years of age. This means that everyone can continue to retire at 62, but at the cost of a penalty on their pension, those who leave afterwards benefit on the contrary from a bonus.

"It's very simple: for the CFDT to take another look at this bill, the government must agree to withdraw the age of balance. One point, that's all," declared Mr. Berger in the Journal du Sunday.

He repeats that "it makes no sense" according to him to combine the transformation of the existing 42 pension plans into a universal point system with an age measure whose purpose is to make savings to ensure balance plan financial.

To the point of not ruling out organizing a "meeting in January" to succeed, after Tuesday's demonstration, at the same time as the CGT-FO-Solidaires-FSU intersyndicale which requests the complete withdrawal of the reform.

In the meantime, he suggests that he accepts Matignon's invitation, with the CFTC and Unsa, to a new consultation. Mr. Philippe wanted it "as soon as possible next week", the union official did not specify a date.

He finally said he was concerned that there was "no blockage of transport at Christmas".

Traffic will remain very disrupted Sunday and Monday with still a quarter of the TGV and a third of the TER, as well as almost all of the metro lines closed.

Monday traffic will be "very reduced" at RATP.

The next day, railway workers, students, employees of the public service, health professions, lawyers, magistrates, teachers are expected on the street.

Very mobilized since the start of the conflict, the latter obtained Friday from the government the guarantee of salary increases, for around 10 billion euros over several years, from January 1, 2021.

© 2019 AFP