Will January be as complicated as December? After a month on strike against the pension reform, Emmanuel Macron will open a key week on Monday to try to find a way out of the crisis. As of Monday, as for every return to work in January, the government will meet at the Ministry of the Interior for a working breakfast, then head to the Élysée Palace for the first Council of Ministers, after its vows to the president. Emmanuel Macron and his government will then have to stop their strategy to get out of the stagnation.
Edouard Philippe, who must, according to the Head of State, find a "rapid compromise" with "the unions who want it", had already summoned several of the ministers concerned on Friday to take stock of the situation in transport. All knowing that the president remains determined to "complete" the reform. Time is now running out, since Emmanuel Macron and Edouard Philippe have only two weeks to find a solution before the reform is presented to the Council of Ministers the week of January 20.
The battle of opinion
At the same time, the opponents seek to re-mobilize their troops to win the battle of opinion. According to an Odoxa survey, support for the strike movement remains in the majority but is running out of steam (61%, - 5 points in two weeks). Three out of four French people (75%, -2) are dissatisfied with the project as it stands and want the government to give it up (29%) or abandon "its idea of a pivotal age of 64 years" (46%).
This Saturday, several thousand people demonstrated in Paris at the call of the departmental unions CGT, FO, Solidaires and FSU, alongside "yellow vests", to demand the withdrawal of the reform. And as of Monday, new calls to strike were filed, notably by lawyers, the 2nd pilot union of Air-France and federations of nurses and physiotherapists. And for Tuesday, the CGT promised a tightening of the blockages of refineries, oil terminals and depots.
A return to dialogue on Tuesday?
Tuesday is the day when "negotiations" are to resume. Édouard Philippe will introduce discussions with the social partners at the Ministry of Labor under the aegis of Muriel Pénicaud, absent until now from the discussions. Its presence is explained by the need to "discuss the development of the end of careers and employment of seniors", justified a government source.
The fact remains that the leader of FO, Yves Veyrier, does not "have the impression that we have a lot of negotiation space". On France inter, he estimated Saturday that "the responsibility" for the length of the strike "is at the very least shared" with the government. The opposition, from left and right, also accuses the government of being "responsible for the stagnation" and the "mess".
Two days of mobilization
And the week will be far from over for the head of state, since two crucial days will follow. First on Thursday, January 9, with a call from the intersyndicale (CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, Solidaires, FSU) to an interprofessional day of demonstrations and strikes. Then on Saturday 11 January, with a call to demonstrate throughout the country, launched by the same inter-union.
It remains to be seen what position the secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, will take, who could be sensitive to concessions on arduousness, but who has made the withdrawal of the pivotal age a non-negotiable criterion. In the meantime, SNCF traffic remained disrupted for the return from school weekends but with an improvement, just like at RATP. SNCF anticipates a “big improvement” in TGV traffic next week.
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- Job
- Emmanuel Macron
- Edouard Philippe
- Union
- Pension reform
- Strike