Pensions: Borne reaches out to unions ahead of 10th round in the street on Tuesday

"I am at the disposal of the social partners. We have to find the right way: are these bilateral meetings, an inter-union meeting? We need to bring appeasement. And that we can resume work on all these sites" of arduousness, professional retraining etc., said the Prime Minister in an interview with AFP.

The head of government has planned in her agenda a slot to possibly receive trade unions and employers' organizations in the week of April 10.

Charged by Emmanuel Macron to build a government program and a legislative program, Elisabeth Borne also specifies that she will "deploy" to do this an "action plan" over the next three weeks "which mobilizes all the actors who want to move (the) country forward".

She will receive in the week of April 3 parliamentary groups and political parties, including those of the opposition, as well as representatives of communities, with the aim of "appeasing the country" and "dialogue with all actors on the method we want to put in place".

Ahead of these meetings, Emmanuel Macron will receive on Monday Elisabeth Borne and the executives of his majority - party leaders, ministers, parliamentarians - at the Elysee, in order to refine a strategy to try to get out of the crisis.

Because the protest against the pension reform continued in several cities on Saturday, with processions gathering a few hundred people. "Local rallies" encouraged by the inter-union before a new big day of mobilization Tuesday, including a Parisian procession that will parade from the Place de la République to Nation.

IGPN seized of 17 investigations

In Ile-de-France, RER traffic is expected to be "very disrupted" Tuesday, with one train out of two on lines A and B, according to the RATP. In the metro, transit frequencies will be reduced on most lines, some of which will close earlier than usual. The traffic forecasts at the SNCF will be known on Monday.

In the capital, where garbage collectors have been on strike for more than 20 days, the volume of uncollected waste was down Sunday with 7,828 tons still pending.

Several questions surround Tuesday's day of action. Will it follow in the wake of the previous one, marked by a rebound in mobilization, with between 1.09 million (Beauvau) and 3.5 million (CGT) participants?

And will we witness new violence, in a general climate very tense, like the clashes around the basins this Saturday in Sainte-Soline, which left dozens injured on the side of the police as demonstrators, with a member of the procession between life and death Sunday?

The Council of Europe has been alarmed by an "excessive use of force" and criticism focuses on the BRAV-M, a motorcycle unit responsible for maintaining order in the capital and whose dissolution is "not on the agenda", according to police prefect Laurent Nuñez.

In total, the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) has been seized of 17 judicial investigations since the first national day of mobilization against the pension reform in January, said Sunday its director.

'Desire for disorder'

Faced with this generalized hardening, the government blames some of its opponents.

"Those who today fire mortars and try to burn" public buildings, "have a desire for disorder," said Sunday the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, during the political program of France Inter / France Televisions and Le Monde.

"These are people who do not respect anything, certainly not human life," added the president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, evoking on the set of the Grand Jury RTL / Le Figaro / LCI the "abominable" threats that she and other elected representatives of the majority have received recently.

"Those who protest are angry, we must hear them," government spokesman Olivier Véran told the Journal du Dimanche. Nothing to do with "the factious who come to sow chaos in the country".

Argument returned by the secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, who recalls in an interview with the magazine Le Grand Continent that the pension reform aims to generate "barely 10 billion euros in savings" and considers "absurd to risk sinking the France into chaos for so little".

The president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, for his part, accused the executive of "speculating on violence". And Jean-Luc Mélenchon asked for the "withdrawal" or a "reset" of the pension reform and the departure of the Prime Minister to get out of the political crisis.

© 2023 AFP