Paris (AFP)

Continued blockages, torchlit retreats before a 7th national day of demonstrations on Friday: the opponents display their "determination" to wrest the withdrawal of the pension reform presented Friday in the Council of Ministers.

After seven weeks of conflict, the two bills - organic and ordinary - instituting the "universal system" of pension by points promised by Emmanuel Macron will be on the agenda of the executive Friday, before being sent to the 'National Assembly, where debates will begin on February 17 for a first vote in early March.

But the fight continues on the ground. The intersyndicale (CGT, FO, Solidaires, FSU, CFE-CGC and youth organizations), which met Wednesday evening, announced in a press release its "determination to have this bill withdrawn".

"When you are right in the face of a reform which no one in government can explain that it is just and simple, well, determination does not fail," the secretary general said on Thursday. of the CGT Philippe Martinez.

- BnF blocked -

Torchlight retreats are scheduled for Thursday from 6 p.m. Solidaires announces some 150 with processions including Reims, Tours, Tulle, Limoges, Niort, Albi, as well as in Paris, between Nation and République.

Between 30 and 50 protesters blocked Thursday access to the François-Mitterrand site of the National Library of France (Bnf), we learned from the institution. "We have collectively decided to close the BnF", claimed in a press release an inter-union CGT, FSU and SUD Culture.

Access to the Paluel and Penly nuclear power plants, in Seine-maritime, was disrupted by demonstrators without consequence on electricity production, EDF said on Thursday.

In Dijon, unionists partially blocked the premises of Enedis (ex-ERDF), we learned from concordant sources.

Two trade unionists agents of Enedis in Dordogne had been placed for a few hours in police custody Wednesday for a wild cut of electricity, on January 10, in a company classified Seveso.

"Faced with a conflict that it does not control, the government wants to criminalize the social movement," denounced in Le Parisien on Thursday the general secretary of the CGT Energie Cédric Liechti. Despite the resumption of work at SNCF and RATP with almost normal traffic, "there is a renewed mobilization," said the union member.

In the maritime sector, the three-day "dead ports" operation continues until Friday.

- Referendum -

The Minister of Public Accounts Gérald Darmanin and that of the Economy Bruno Le Maire have received death threat letters, one of them demanding the abandonment of the reform, according to Bercy. The Paris prosecutor's office has opened an investigation.

Faced with the increasing number of punches, those around Edouard Philippe pointed to the "radicalization" of a minority of "hard-liners".

The mobilization continues to be supported by a majority of the population. More than six in ten French (61%) believe that Emmanuel Macron should withdraw the reform, an opinion up four points in a month, according to an Elabe poll for BFMTV published Wednesday.

Thirteen left-wing parties, including the PCF, EELV and the PS, presented a counter-reform project on Wednesday, with minimum pension at minimum wage and better consideration of arduousness.

The president of Debout la France Nicolas Dupont-Aignan for his part pleaded Thursday on France 2 for the organization of a referendum in order to get out of the conflict and put an end to the "unrest".

© 2020 AFP