Matignon is trying to renew dialogue with the opposition. Political consultations continued on Tuesday 4 April – with leaders of left-wing parties – as a prelude to the highly anticipated meeting between trade union representatives and the Prime Minister, and an eleventh day of mobilization.

After the tenors of the right and the center on Monday, Elisabeth Borne had an appointment with a part of the left. First with the leader of the ecologists, Marine Tondelier, who came to speak at midday "about the climate of violence" and "the maintenance of order". And who made the link with the pension reform at the end of his interview: "There will be no peace without withdrawal. It's not a threat, it's the facts," she said, adding that "the French are not ready to turn the page."

The First Secretary of the PS Olivier Faure, received in turn by the Prime Minister to evoke the "general situation" of the country, said on his arrival that he would ask for "the withdrawal" of the reform.

"Today there is a democratic blockage, so we came to ask for the withdrawal. And if there is no withdrawal, we must give the floor back to the French," he said before his meeting.

The communist Fabien Roussel declined the invitation to Matignon and went to the Élysée with some parliamentarians from his camp, but also from the centrist group Liot, to ask for a referendum on the subject.

At the end of a "frank and direct exchange" with Emmanuel Macron's chief of staff, positions have hardly changed. "Everyone is waiting for the decision of the Constitutional Council," said Fabien Roussel.

The verdict to be delivered on 14 April is also in the crosshairs of the unions. "If he censors the whole law, it will be very good," said Laurent Berger in an interview with L'Obs. Otherwise, a green light to the procedure of referendum of initiative (RIP) shared on pensions could also "be the opportunity not to promulgate this law and to start again on a good basis", adds the secretary general of the CFDT.

A "well united" inter-union

These messages were distilled the day before the meeting of the inter-union with the Prime Minister, Wednesday at 10 am. The leaders of the eight main organizations met Tuesday afternoon at the headquarters of the CFDT to tune their violins before this summit meeting.

A first for the new general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, elected last week at the end of an eventful Congress.

"It took place in a very good atmosphere. The inter-union is well united, united. It's reassuring, nothing has changed," one of the participants told AFP on condition of anonymity. "Tomorrow the government that wants to turn the page will see that we do not want to turn the page," said the source.

"We will repeat to the Prime Minister our opposition to the 64-year-olds, ask her not to apply this text and to launch a social dialogue on work and pensions," explains the national secretary of the CFDT Yvan Ricordeau.

The left pushes for a referendum of shared initiative (RIP)

After the eleventh day of action scheduled for Thursday, a twelfth should take place next week, ahead of the decision of the Constitutional Council.

In sharp decline last week, participation will be scrutinized, as well as the excesses on the sidelines of the processions.

Further disruptions are expected in transport, schools or refineries.

On Tuesday morning, several demonstrations in the west of the country caused road blockades in Vannes, Morlaix, Saint-Brieuc or Nantes. In Bordeaux, a power cut in the Saint-Jean station district, claimed by the CGT, left 22,000 homes without power, according to Enedis.

A "torchlight retreat" is also planned in the early evening in Rennes, at the call of several unions. And in Paris, where the sidewalks have been cleared of the piles of garbage accumulated in March, the CGT is again calling on garbage collectors to strike "renewable" from April 13, the day before the opinion of the Constitutional Council.

The unions are already planning for the future, promising a strong mobilization to obtain the 4.7 million signatures necessary for the RIP if by chance the Constitutional Council validates the law and the referendum.

With AFP

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