In a rare speech on this burning subject, President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called on the organizers of the protest to maintain their "spirit of responsibility" so that "disagreements can be expressed, but calmly, respect for property and people, and with a desire not to block the life of the rest of the country".

"The very principle of a pension reform is indeed to ask all those who can to work a little more," said Friday on France 2 the leader of the Renaissance deputies, Aurore Bergé.

The first three mobilizations brought together without notable incidents between 757,000 people according to the Ministry of the Interior (2 million according to the organizers), Tuesday and 1.27 million (2.5 million) on January 31.

On Saturday, the unions hope to mobilize those who cannot strike during the week.

From a police source on Friday, territorial intelligence forecasts a participation of 600,000 to 800,000 in around 240 demonstrations, including between 90 and 120,000 in Paris.

The secretaries general of the CFDT and the CGT, Laurent Berger (g) and Philippe Martinez (c) during a demonstration against the pension reform, February 7, 2023 in Paris © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP / Archives

The inter-union (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires, FSU) called for two new days of action, February 16 and March 7 and is preparing for a long showdown, the secretary General of the CGT Philippe Martinez evoking this week of possible "harder, more numerous, more massive and renewable strikes".

"Outpouring of Hate"

In the immediate future, the deputies joined their desks on Friday to continue the examination of the text which has so far only given rise to repetitive debates, invectives and a first article concerning the abolition of special regimes still not vote.

The left scraps against this measure, with the support of the National Rally (RN), facing a presidential camp defending a measure of "equity".

Both sides agree on one thing about the reform: the refusal to raise the retirement age to 64 years.

The means of achieving this in parliamentary debate differ, however.

Examination of the pension reform at the National Assembly, February 7, 2023 in Paris © Ludovic MARIN / AFP / Archives

Thursday, a tweet by LFI deputy Thomas Portes in which he stages his foot on a balloon bearing the image of the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, on the front line on the reform, lit a new fuse.

On the government side, the Minister for Relations with Parliament Franck Riester, castigated a deputy and a Nupes (LFI, PS, PCF, EELV) who are trying "to make this social mobilization a surge of hatred".

Inside the Nupes itself, the boss of the PS, Olivier Faure, deplored "the reprehensible gestures which serve the cause".

Conversely, the leader of LFI, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, accused on BFMTV "the propaganda" of the presidential majority in this "balloon story".

Withdrawal of amendments?

Olivier Dussopt himself alluded to it when work resumed on Friday.

Beyond that, the presidential camp castigates the "obstruction" of left-wing deputies, who have tabled thousands of amendments, often identical, to increase their speaking time.

"They remain on their rhetoric, repeated in a loop, on the stories of Esmeralda and Jacqueline who have back pain", sighs a Renaissance deputy.

The RN also points to this “absurd” attitude and “which does the government a service”, according to Marine Le Pen.

The Nupes retorts that it is the government which has chosen to shorten the debates scheduled until February 17, the cut-off date before a transmission of the text to the Senate.

"We want to go further and obviously to article 7", which contains the age measurement, assures the socialist leader Boris Vallaud, leaving the possibility of a withdrawal of many amendments which would suddenly accelerate the debates.

© 2023 AFP