Véran mocked for having compared a "France at a standstill" to "an ecological disaster"

“Putting France to a halt would be to let slip a crisis that we can still avoid. The absence of rain for more than 30 days now in France poses an extremely high risk to the state of our water reserves. this summer. Putting the country on hold means taking the risk of an ecological, agricultural, health and even human disaster in a few months, "said the government spokesperson after the Council of Ministers.

"The drought is the fault of the unions? The health crisis, ditto? And why not the defeat in the World Cup? Your attempts to discredit an unprecedented mobilization against 64-year-olds are rude", reacted the secretary general of CFDT Laurent Berger on Twitter.

"Waiting for the invasion of grasshoppers, the rain of frogs to add to this staggering list of foreseeable consequences of March 7. Thank you Mr. Véran, thanks to you, opposition to the pension reform has just increased by a few points", added his CFE-CGC counterpart François Hommeril.

"This pension reform is really a calamity, even the government spokesman recognizes it," quipped socialist senator Rémi Féraud.

For LFI MP Clémence Guetté, "Olivier Véran sinks into ridicule".

“And in the face of this apocalypse … the government would not withdraw its pension reform”, for his part questioned the leader of the PS deputies Boris Vallaud.

In his statement, Olivier Véran also considered that "putting France on hold would be neglecting the health of our children", recalling that Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday a vaccination campaign in colleges in order to better fight against the disease. papillomavirus.

"Putting France to a halt would be to miss the train of the future while our rail network is aging at high speed", he further listed, pleading for massive investments to modernize the network.

The risk of a blockage of the country risks, in the end, to "heighten an already salty bill", noted Olivier Véran, recalling various measures adopted in 2022 to "preserve" purchasing power.

The intersyndicale called for "putting France to a halt in all sectors on March 7".

© 2023 AFP