• Pulse Lock in refineries in protests
  • Regimes: This is the reform of Macron's pensions

Neither the Christmas break, nor the concessions of the Government, nor the fatigue after 36 days of strike, the longest in the history of the railroad. The French unions yesterday managed to mobilize hundreds of thousands of people against the pension reform proposed by Emmanuel Macron. There were 216 demonstrations throughout the country. The one in Paris gathered 370,000 people according to the CGT union, which would be the record for the protest (according to Interior, there were 56,000 and according to a specialized cabinet hired by the French media, 44,000). The French justify the protest (61%) but want it to be over (57%) according to a poll published Thursday.

It has been the fourth day of mobilizations . The most crowded was the first, on December 5, when 806,000 protesters took to the streets, according to the Government (1.5 million according to the CGT). This Thursday, the disparity in the count widened. The unions proclaim 800,000 protesters outside Paris. Interior, less than 400,000.

In Marseille there were 22,000 protesters according to the police (220,000 according to CGT). In Toulouse, the government counted 14,000 people (the central one, 120,000). In Bordeaux some added 10,000 protesters, another 70,000. But, even considering the Government's figures for good, the protest has shown that it still has rope.

The leader of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, denounced the "provocative attitude" of the executive and doubts the negotiating will of the executive directed by Edouard Philippe. The unionist made that statement just before the start of the Parisian courtship. Together with other union leaders, he held the banner: "Retirement for points, all losers. Retirement at 60, all winners. Macron withdraws your plan."

This time the unions toured the north of the capital. What irritated the Government because the square where it ended, St. Augustine, is less than a kilometer from the Elisha Palace . The police closed all the streets with two-meter high metal barriers attached to concrete blocks. The deployment of 5,500 police and gendarmes did not prevent the incidents at dusk. The prefect's cavalry that travels on 120 large displacement motorcycles with two police officers per motorcycle was used thoroughly. In the networks there are videos that would demonstrate the great police hardness. At 6 pm there were 24 detainees.

The procession paraded without major incidents until the end although the riot police escorted the radical groups that stand in front of the leaders' banner. A stall of a group that proposes a sovereign republic and to which the protesters presumed to be a far-rightist was destroyed in bad ways.

Lawyers and professors

In that crossing several lawyers were bet that yesterday supported the protest. Embedded in their robes, they received applause and hugs from the protesters, some of whom wore yellow vests.

From the beginning of the protest, the mobilization day is reinforced by stoppages in other sectors. Thus 19% of primary school teachers and 16% of secondary school teachers went on strike according to the Ministry of Education (40% and 50% according to unions).

Symbolically, the Eiffel Tower remained closed, Parisian newspapers were not printed and France Info public radio only broadcast newsletters and music. The electricity supply suffered falls due to EDF workers who picketed at the entrance of a nuclear power plant. The refinery block is serving its second day of the three planned but it has barely been felt at the gas stations. The Government has warned that while workers have the right to strike, preventing the departure of trucks is "illegal."

Transport, key

The core of the strike is on the railroad and the Paris metro, two of the 42 particular retirement regimes that Macron wants to merge with its universal and point reform project.

In the SNCF, the French Renfe, the strike that has turned 36 days , is already the longest since the creation of the public company in 1938. It has exceeded the records of 1995 and winter of 86-87 when they added 27 and 28 days consecutive, respectively. And the one of 2018 when the strikes also reached 36 days but in alternate days.

The mobilization of the machinists caused that only a third of the Outskirts circulated although 40% of the regional trains and 60% of the high-speed trains already work. Although only one third of SNCF workers missed work, the protest has strong roots among the machinists (67% of strikers) and reviewers (58%) the two essential categories for trains to work. This Thursday the follow-up was exceptional. Days without demonstrations, the strikers of the SNCF do not reach 7%.

Same trend in the Parisian subway: there are no longer closed lines but in the majority they only circulate at peak times.

Strikers have popular support, according to polls, and ... economic . The piggy bank of the communication union of the CGT has already raised 2.1 million euros, donated by more than 30,000 people. It is the most important of these initiatives. Distribute the money to the strikers (who do at least two days in a row) through the company committees.

All in all, the best fuel of protest is popular support. The latest survey (Odoxa for Le Figaro) indicates that 61% of French people find it justified compared to 39% who do not think so. In a month the support has dropped 5 points.

Sympathy for the strike

This phenomenon of sympathy for protest is common in French sociology. It is called "strike for procurement." That is to say: I do not strike but I support it morally even if it generates complications for me.

If the Government must take into account the support for the protest, the unions should take note of the answer to another question of the survey: 57% of the citizenship wants it to be over and in front of the 42% that it prefers to continue. Those who suffer the most, inhabitants of the Parisian agglomeration, are fed up: 70% want it to end.

The survey suspends all the protagonists of the conflict, unions, opposition parties and the Government. The least bad result is for the CFDT, the most moderate union that always supported the end of the particular regimes but is opposed to delaying the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.

Public opinion supports it : 61% oppose it. The prime minister justified this measure, which was not in the electoral program of Macron, in the need for the financial balance of the system. This week he accepted the creation of an ad hoc conference, a proposal of the CFDT. Edouard Philippe has called the first meeting for today.

Over there you can see the exit of the conflict. The Government, which wants to save its reform but has made concessions to numerous sectors , is going to have to do some sleight of hand: its electorate does support the measure (54%) and the right-wing voters, too (60%). And those are precisely the electoral bases of Macron if he wants to repeat his mandate.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Paris
  • Renfe
  • France
  • Emmanuel Macron
  • Yellow vests

Strike: The French Government gives in to police requests and abandons protests

Strike Macron's pension reform splits France in two

FranceThe strike for pension reform is enchanted to Macron: a month and up