“The French have to believe in it,” CFDT general secretary Laurent Berger said on Thursday of the protest movement against the pension reform. “I tell the employees, they have to believe that we can get the government to back down on this reform, and all of a sudden we have to mobilize en masse on March 7th. […]. In the end we can win the case, ”he continued, during a press conference at the CFDT headquarters in Paris.
Unions committed against the postponement of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 called to “paralyze the country” on March 7. Laurent Berger wished it to be a “significant day”, dotted with various initiatives, “open tolls, closed shop curtains”, or even in the construction sector, “no crane in operation”.
Broad rejection of the reform
Opinion polls show, poll after poll, a very broad rejection of the reform by the French. But few believe in a possible victory: in an Ifop poll for the JDD published at the end of January, 68% said they were against it, but almost the same number (67%) thought it would be voted on and implemented. . Laurent Berger’s press conference followed a round table with intellectuals on the subject of work, unthinkable projects of the government according to the CFDT.
The CNRS research director at Sciences-Po, Bruno Palier, also invited the opponents to project themselves towards victory. “We have never had such favorable conditions” -the unity of the inter-union, a very largely hostile opinion, “the lack of preparation of the government”-, “however, the French believe that it will happen”, he pointed out, before throw: “You have to absolutely believe in it!”.
Source: BFM TV
