PICTURES | Protests against raising the retirement age intensify in France
The French trade unions celebrated their first mass demonstrations since President Emmanuel Macron stoked public outrage by imposing an increase in the retirement age without a parliamentary vote. The strikes have disrupted the movement of residents of major cities and blockages are expected at ports, refineries and landfills.
The violence escalated in recent days in scattered protests against pension reform and Macron’s leadership.
Macron took refuge in the face of growing discontent on the streets of France and claimed that the pension law, which raises the retirement age from 62 to 64, must be applied before the end of the year.
The president says he assumes the unpopularity of the reform and accuses the unions and the opposition, as well as the “seditious” who organized spontaneous demonstrations lasted for a week.
They were the president’s first remarks since the government forced parliamentary approval of the law last week due to a lack of support in the chamber. The government then survived two motions of censure Monday in the lower house of parliament.
Critics blasted the president for the comments and accused him of arrogant, disconnected and offensive.
“This statement will stir up anger,” warned CGT general secretary Philippe Martinez on RTL radio, calling Macron’s comparison of the protests with the riots in the capital scandalous. Capitol in the United States in 2021 or in Brazil in January.
The leader of the union, CFDT, Laurent Berger, recalled for his part that “94% of working people reject this reformwhich does not have a majority in the National Assembly and has been massively rejected by the streets for more than two and a half months”.
The bill must now be considered by the Constitutional Council of France before becoming law.
The 45-year-old president, who is in his second and final term, reiterated that he was convinced that the pension system had to be changed to continue to fund. Critics offered other solutions such as raising taxes on the wealthy or on corporations, to which Macron said that these actions would harm the economy.
The protesters received the support of some 300 cultural professionals, including actresses Juliette Binoche and Camille Cottinwho in an opinion piece published in the newspaper Liberation called for the withdrawal of an unjust reform.
This Thursday promises to be crucial for the unions’ ability to maintain mobilization, especially as the reform awaits the final approval of the Constitutional Council and protests tend to radicalize and atomize.
“It is important to strengthen mobilization and strikes if we want to break the government“Said Yann Lucas, 44, professor at the University of Strasbourg, recalling that in 2006 the withdrawal of a controversial youth contract had been obtained despite its adoption.
The unions announced a 50% of strikers in schools, which could also be numerous in the energy and transport sectors. In the Paris metro, the FO-RATP central described it as a dark day.
Several actions aimed at blocking oil reservoirs, ports, highways and universities, among others, were carried out on Wednesday in France, where the shortage of fuel is starting to be felt in a 14% gas stations.
The police anticipate between 600,000 and 800,000 people in some 320 actions and awaits radical demonstrators in Paris and in more than ten cities, encouraged by the climate of violence of recent days.
Since March 16, when the government adopted the reform by decree for fear of losing the vote in the Assembly, Hundreds of mostly young people come out every night to protestburning containers and blocking the streets followed by the Police.
Nearly a thousand people were apprehended, some arrests which Amnesty International has described as arbitrary detentions. The leftist opposition, lawyers, magistrates and the ombudsman have expressed concern over the police action.
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With information from the AP and AFP
Source: El Heraldo De Mexico
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