It is a mobilization of great importance. The ninth day of action against the pension reform, but the first since the government used article 49.3 to approve its text without the vote of the deputies. Since then, the social climate has become even more tense with daily demonstrations, sometimes charged with tension.
The text continues its “democratic path”, stressed the President of the Republic during an interview this Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. on France 2 and TF1. The Head of State has set the course for its entry into force “at the end of the year”, while he relies on “the decision of the Constitutional Council” -taken advantage of by the Prime Minister but also by the opposition- to promulgate it.
“Anything but appeasement”, after the interview with the president
For their part, the unions are convinced that the “stubbornness” of the President of the Republic will strengthen the determination of the opponents. Philippe Martínez, leader of the CGT, prepared the ground. For weeks he has been repeating that a “law that is still approved does not necessarily apply” and cites “the first employment contract.” He understands: The social protest must continue, even if the law is enacted.
“This demonstration is not a last stop, on the contrary, it is the mobilization that happens to a greater degree after what happened, 49.3, the step in force of the government, and even the latest statements by Emmanuel Macron (…) This talk is any anything less appeasement”, Amaury Cullard, a 42-year-old psychologist, declared this Wednesday in Strasbourg.
During his interview, the President of the Republic had no kind words towards the unions -and in particular the CFDT- accused of not having been able to “propose(r) a compromise”.
“Provocation comes from power”
Given the tensions in the demonstrations, the head of state said that he could not accept “neither the faction nor the factions” and risked making a comparison with the events in the Capitol during the election of Joe Biden in the United States. The unions denounced in unison the “contempt” and the “denial” of the head of state, expected this Thursday in the early afternoon in Brussels for a European council.
“This intervention will provoke anger,” the general secretary of the CGT, Philippe Martínez, who will leave the leadership of the Confederation next week, told RTL during the organization’s 53rd Congress.
Luc Leclercq, representative of the CGT in Free, “will continue to demonstrate every day if necessary.” “We can see that the only time when (Macron) starts to react is when people burn garbage cans every night. Isn’t that the solution? We are beginning to ask ourselves the question ”, he declared during a rally this Wednesday evening in Bordeaux.
Between 600 and 800,000 people wait for the police
Left-wing politicians echoed the unions, with rebel leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon denouncing Emmanuel Macron’s “traditional displays of contempt” and calling on the French to “invade the streets by millions”.
With no number of protesters advancing, union leaders are once again calling for a “massive” mobilization. The police anticipate “between 600 and 800,000 people in some 320 actions”, including between 40 and 70,000 in Paris, where the procession will leave at 2:00 p.m. from the Place de la Bastille to the Place de l’Opéra.
Some 500 yellow vests and 500 radical elements are expected in Paris, and “in the provinces more than a dozen cities will see ultra-left demonstrations, encouraged by the climate of violence in recent days.”
The executive expects the mobilization to “turn off”
40-50% of strikers are expected in nursery and primary schools, according to Snuipp-FSU, the main primary union. The strikers could also be numerous among refiners, electricians and gas producers, on the front lines of the dispute.
The highly disrupted traffic expected on the RATP and the SNCF: the FO-RATP union, the first among metro drivers, called, after the activation of 49.3, to make Thursday “a black day” in transport. Only half of the TGV Inoui and Ouigo and a third of the TER will circulate on the SNCF.
The FIDL high school students’ union called for “mass blockades throughout the territory” for Thursday and Friday. Will Thursday’s mobilization be a last stand or a grand finale before the protest dies down? According to a source close to the Government, the executive hopes that the mobilization “will go out” after the demonstration on Thursday, and that everything will return to normal “this weekend”.
Source: BFM TV
