The pivotal age debate, a "backfire" that irritates protesters

• Hundreds of thousands of people beat the pavement all over France for the fourth day of demonstration against the pension reform.
• The question of maintaining or removing the pivotal age set at 64 in the reform project is for the demonstrators met this Thursday, "secondary" in terms of all the text carried by the executive.
• Still mobilized, a month after the start of the dispute, most of them demanded the "pure and simple" withdrawal from the reform.

It is not raining yet at the start of the afternoon near Place de République, but Charlotte * and Frédérique * have already taken out their umbrellas. On the transparent umbrella, "memories" of previous events have been pasted. Among them, a counterfeit banknote of 500 euros, decorated with the face of the former President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy. "We were already there in March 2010 against the previous reform of the pension system," said Charlotte, occupational therapist in the Paris region, aged 49.

Like many of the demonstrators met on Thursday, the two of them carefully followed the negotiations between the executive and the CFDT around the pivotal age. In the procession, which gathered this Thursday, January 9, 56,000 people, according to the Ministry of the Interior, the subject irritates. If some consider this point of the reform "scandalous", many believe that it is a "fire" or a "maneuver" of the government to weaken the mobilization.

"A technique to divide us"

On the signs, the slogans relating to this famous pivotal age are rare. Calls for the total withdrawal of the text, they are omnipresent. However, the subject has occupied an important place in the French media for several days. Dressed in her black dress, Meriem, a lawyer at the Seine-Saint-Denis bar for nine years, sees it as a "backfire", ignited voluntarily by the government: "Basically, we feel that there is will have no changes to the project. For us lawyers, this reform means an increase in contributions and a reduction in pensions. We have an autonomous, united and fair plan, every year we don't cost the taxpayer anything and we send money back to the other plans. It is shameful what we are trying to impose on us. "

The lawyers of @syndicatavocats are also present in the procession # greve9janvier pic.twitter.com/FUrm5KdFcS

White blouse on the back and signboard taped to her bag, Florence, nurse at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital since 1988, goes further: “We feel that negotiations around the pivotal age are an argument so that strikes end if an agreement is reached with the CFDT. It is a technique to divide us, and to weaken mobilization. But us, it is not the pivotal age that we dispute, it is the whole of the reform and the point system that we reject! "However, the establishment of a pivotal age - in this case 64 years - which would condition a departure with a full-rate retirement is not completely brushed aside by the Parisian demonstrators.

"The issue of arduousness is very important"

While the procession has not yet started, Léa *, a 56-year-old language teacher in a high school in Corbeil-Essonnes, is annoyed: “This pivotal age is a scandal! I can't see myself courting my students on the 2nd floor of my establishment with a walker. We are subjected to a lot of work, a lot of activities to set up, we have to keep our students, we need dynamism and I don't think that at 64 or 67, we still have enough ”.

Florence, nurse since 1988 at the public hospital. “All the debates at the moment revolve around the pivotal age. But we don't dispute that, it's the very philosophy of this reform ”# greve9janvier pic.twitter.com/UuZKVmbY06

At his side, one of his young colleagues, Diego, nuance: "To focus the debate on the question of the pivotal age, even if it is obviously not nothing, is to miss the point: namely the very philosophy of this reform by point which will result, for us teachers, to make us retire with a lower pension ”. As with Léa, Charlotte and Frédérique, dietician and occupational therapist, believe that setting this pivotal age at 64 would create inequalities. “The issue of arduousness is very important. It does not only affect nurses and nursing assistants, but all the paramedics, all those who handle the bodies. We cannot fix the same age for all professions, ”says Frédérique.

Far from weakening, the protest against the project as a whole is firmly claimed by the strikers and demonstrators. Present at the head of the procession, the assistant secretary CGT Ile-de-France of Pôle Emploi denounces a "betrayal" on the part of the CFDT. “The pivotal age is not secondary. But this is just one of the many problems with this reform. With the calculation by point over the whole of the career, pivotal age or not pivotal age, this will lower all pensions. If there is agreement on the pivotal age, it is the betrayal of the mobilization that is underway today, and it is absolutely not representative of all of our demands ”.

Between two songs, Lucas, a 24-year-old literature student, warns: "A step back on the pivotal age, we don't care, that would be nice than at the CFDT. We are the whole project we want the government to withdraw. We will demonstrate as long as the reform is maintained. "

* First names have been changed

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• Society
• CFDT
• Emmanuel Macron
• Edouard Philippe
• Paris
• Retirement
• Government
• Pension reform
• Demonstration