Paris (AFP)

It was an unprecedented spectacle: among the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on December 5 were dancers from the Paris Opera, worried about the upcoming disappearance of their special pension scheme.

The Opéra and the Comédie-Française are the only cultural institutions involved in the reform of the government. Otherwise more confidential than that of RATP or SNCF, the special regime of the Opera is one of the oldest in France, since it dates from 1698, under Louis XIV.

The strike has already led to the cancellation last week of dozens of ballet, opera and theater performances.

This is not the first time that the Ballet de l'Opéra, one of the most prestigious in the world, is on strike, but it is rare to see him beat the pavement.

"In 20 years in this house, this is the first time I see dancers in the street," says AFP Alexander Carniato, dancer and elected to the Pension Fund of the Opera.

Of the 154 Ballet dancers, "there were 120 to demonstrate, from ballet corps to stars", explains this "quadrille" (last step in the hierarchy of the company).

- "Bounce back" after retirement -

At 41, he has a year left before bowing out, because of a singular provision: retirement at 42 years. It takes into account the "arduousness" of the trade, with the risk of injury and premature interruption of career and the fact that the majority can hardly continue to dance the great ballets beyond this age with the same level of excellence .

"The Paris Opera Ballet is the only employer in France to train its future employees at the age of 8 (...) work accidents are among the highest in France," tweeted Adrien Couvez, dancer of the company.

From the moment when "we are hired at 16 at the Opera, we do a day from 09:00 to 23:30 ... The more we advance in age, the more we fear not to go to the end. some have titanium hips, "says Carniato.

Once their special fund is removed, the dancers are afraid to see their pension disappear.

"The biggest constraint is finding a job" at 42, according to Carniato.

"My pension of 1,067 euros will allow me to rebound if I cumulate for example a position in a municipal school where the standard salary is 1,200 euros," said one who met the Minister of Culture Franck Riester and the High Commissioner to the Jean-Paul Delevoye Retreats.

- "The best will go" -

The Minister of Culture had confirmed to BFMTV that the regime of the Opera was going to disappear. "However, we will not take into account the realities of a number of trades? Of course not," he said, without saying more.

So far, "we have no answer, we do not know what to expect," says Carniato.

The dancers defend an advantageous regime that makes envy in regional ballets like Bordeaux or Toulouse.

"The dancers of the Paris Opera are the only ones in France with this privileged retirement of 42. All the other dancers are mostly on CDD with nothing at the end!", Tweeted Marc Ribaud, director of the ballet dance of the Nice Opera.

"I think they should be like us and not the opposite," says Carniato. "If we want the troupe to keep this aura in the world, it is necessary that this pension remains, otherwise the best dancers will go abroad where they will be three times better paid".

"It is not because one works in a palace (Garnier) that one lives a castle life", had testified the star dancer Germain Louvet with the communist newspaper Regards.

The Opera is a cultural showcase of France and the state contributes half of the funding of its pension fund (14 million euros per year).

In addition to the dancers, several other professions of the Opera as the machinists and the musicians are on strike.

First national theater of France, La Comédie-Française also has its own pension fund (347 contributors against 1.900 of the Opera). In the "House of Molière", the strikers are especially the technicians of the plateau whose job is also considered painful.

© 2019 AFP