Opponents of the pension reform struggled to bring together protesters, this Thursday during school holidays, during a tenth day of interprofessional actions organized in full heckled examination of the bill in the National Assembly.
They were 50,000 in Paris according to the CGT (7,800 according to the police), between Montparnasse and the Place d'Italie where the procession arrived calmly after 4 pm, behind banners and signs: "Retreat!" "," Point retreats, endless work "or" This power is below everything, even on the belt ". The CGT had announced 130,000 demonstrators in Paris on the day of February 6.
"We won the battle. Holding on is a victory ”
In the regions, the prefectures counted 4,500 demonstrators in Lyon, 2,700 in Toulouse, 2,200 in Havre, 2,000 in Clermont-Ferrand, 1,750 in Nantes, 1,500 in Rennes, 1,200 in Montpellier, 550 in Brest and 500 in Quimper and Béziers, in the call from the intersyndicale (CGT, FO, Solidaires, FSU, youth and student organizations) which has been leading the slingshot for two and a half months. Let go? "Ah no, it is not on the agenda," insisted the general secretary of the CGT Philippe Martinez in the Parisian procession. "We won the battle. Holding is a victory, ”assured Rennes Fabrice Lerestif, FO departmental secretary. While the parliamentary discussion began on Monday, "it is thanks to the mobilization that has lasted since December 5 that there is such a debate in the National Assembly," argued the leader of the CGT.
Meanwhile, each side asserts its positions in the pension funding conference, which must provide proposals in late April to bring the pension system back to balance in 2027. According to Yves Veyrier, the number one in FO, we're going straight to a "shipwreck". The discord relates to the amount of deficit mentioned in the documents sent this week by the organizers of the conference, according to which, if nothing is done, the accumulated deficit between 2018 and 2030 could reach 113 billion euros. The CGT threatened Wednesday to slam the door.
"Your reform does not pass"
The unions opposed to the reform are working on a "counter-conference" with notably Solidaires and the FSU who were not invited by the government. At the National Assembly where the deputies must parse some 41,000 amendments, the discussions started on Monday in an electric atmosphere. As of Wednesday, the exam turned into a deadlock. "I believe that you should open your eyes to the reality of this dispute, which is profound throughout the country, a sign that your reform is not going through," launched communist deputy Pierre Dharréville to the government.
On the strike side, the weather is calm. According to the government, the strike rate was 0.95% in the state civil service (0.06% in education), Thursday at midday. Few significant disruptions in transport with "normal" traffic at RATP and almost no impact at SNCF, except in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. A new inter-union meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening to decide on the continuation of the movement.
- CGT
- National Assembly
- Government
- Pension reform
- Demonstration
- Society