Pension reform: Martinez (CGT) accuses Borne of "setting fire"

"It's absolutely scandalous. It is she who should have thought before launching this reform. It is she who, in quotation marks, + sets fire +, it is not us", declared the number one of the second union French on BFMTV and RMC.

The CGT, like the seven other central trade unions, calls for a first day of strikes and demonstrations on January 19 against the decline in the legal retirement age to 64, against 62 today.

"There is a right to strike, there is a right to demonstrate", but "it is also important not to penalize the French", reacted Thursday Elisabeth Borne after the call for a strike launched by the CGT Petroleum .

"For the unions, this is a call for responsibility," she added.

"Who is worrying the French about purchasing power, who is proposing this reform (of pensions) when there are already a lot of worries?" Retorted Philippe Martinez.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne presents the pension reform project on January 10, 2023 in Paris © Bertrand GUAY / POOL/AFP/Archives

Elisabeth Borne "can't say we haven't warned her: all the unions - it's rare - have warned her" saying "be careful what's going to happen", continued the CGT leader.

"That it does not return the responsibility to the trade union organizations for the mobilization which can happen".

The number one of the CGT wanted "millions" of French people to be on strike and in the streets next Thursday, and recalled that "other" days of mobilization were planned.

"There are already reflections on renewable strikes, and not only at Total and the RATP", he observed.

He hoped that there would be "more people" in the processions than only the "unionized".

"We are not going to sort, apart from the elected officials of the National Rally. They are not welcome in our demonstrations", he specified, recommending them "vigorously not to come".

Asked about France 2, the secretary general of Force Ouvrière (3rd union), Frédéric Souillot, for his part stressed that the union demonstration would be "framed", and that "behind this procession will come whoever wants".

© 2023 AFP