“Fed up with being mistreated”.
Several thousand retirees demonstrated on Thursday in twenty major cities to demand an increase in pensions, in the midst of soaring inflation and two weeks before the presidential election.
In the Parisian procession, the message was clear, its recipient too: “Macron, give back the money!
According to the organizers, 3,000 people marched through the capital at the start of the afternoon, to demand, like some, a "13th month for retirees".
Former boilermaker, inserted in the CGT, Alain affirms that he "loses under every month" when "everything increases, gasoline, pasta, potatoes".
Result: "We no longer go to the restaurant once a week, we have to tighten our belts".
Twelfth day of mobilization since 2017
Purchasing power was at the heart of the demands of the "group of nine" unions and associations which called for this day of mobilization, their twelfth since the start of Emmanuel Macron's five-year term.
Two and a half weeks before the first round of the presidential election, and in the midst of soaring inflation, they are calling for a "catch-up" of their retirement pensions, which have already not followed the rise in prices in recent years.
"We have for too long considered that retirees were paid too much to do nothing," laments Gérard Gourguechon, former tax inspector and figure of the Solidaires union, denouncing "age discrimination".
Also in Lyon, in a crowd of 1,400 to 1,500 demonstrators (respectively according to the prefecture and the CGT), the former computer scientist Sylvie Touleron regrets that retirees are "often forgotten, while our standard of living does not follow", in particularly for women, "many of whom are below the poverty line".
Some even live "in misery" and "we cannot accept this kind of situation in the 21st century", indignant Robert Rutto, a former employee in a nuclear power plant.
"Eat Bricks"
Identical observation in Nantes, where 200 people demonstrated at the beginning of the afternoon, including Régine Grasset, former saleswoman: “I worked for 42 years and today I receive 1,100 euros per month.
Sometimes, while watching promotions at the supermarket, I say to myself: "really, all that for that?"
".
In Lille also beat the pavement a few hundred "intractable retirees", according to a sign.
Coming to denounce “an impoverishment of pensioners”, Agnès Hiret, ex-teacher, judges the last revaluation of January “very far from the account” and asks “that the increase in pensions follow that of inflation”.
Former worker in the chemical industry, Bernard Bourlon, for his part, believes that he has “decent incomes” but fights “especially for the following”, because “if the young people do not fight, they will eat bricks”.
The grievances also extend to the presence of public services in rural areas, to the cost of complementary health insurance or even to the coverage of dependency by Social Security.
“More and more, we tend to move from the Vitale card to the blue card”, criticized Jacques Auffèves, head of the CGT-Retired du Rhône.
“Retirees are fed up with being mistreated,” explains Monique Daune, Parisian secretary of the union of retired teachers Snes-FSU.
“The elderly have paid a heavy price during the health crisis,
In the morning, other demonstrations have already brought together a hundred people in Puy-en-Velay according to the police, 220 people in Caen for the prefecture (350 according to the CGT).
In the Norman capital, Isabelle Cruchet, retired from the public service, estimated that “pensions fuel the dynamism of the economy” and launched: “When will we have the respect we deserve?
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Society
Paris: A demonstration for purchasing power overshadowed by the news, candidates with absent subscribers
Society
Demographic ageing: What should France expect in the next half-century?
Society
Retirement
Demonstration
purchasing power
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