A 49.3, a mobilization that lasts over time, youth taking to the streets, a government determined not to let go and that ends up giving up its reform. The story of the First Job Contract has something to give opponents of pension reform hope, especially since it was during the last week of March 2006 that the movement had changed.
17 years later, BFMTV.com spoke to several anti-CPE figures who see many similarities with the opposition to pension reform.
a determined youth
“Young people in the street, it is the anguish of all governments”, deciphers Razzy Hammadi, then president of the Socialist Youth, in the vanguard against a reform embodied by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.
Face au chômage de masse des jeunes, the tenant of Matignon avait decided to launch the CPE, réservé aux moins de 26 ans, qui aurait permis une période d’essai de 2 ans au lieu de 8 mois maximum avec la possibilité de licenciement sans motif during this time. With one objective: to convince companies to hire mainly among the ranks of the youth.
Despite an absolute majority, the right wing failed to get its reform approved and obtained 49.3% in the National Assembly. If the mobilization had not immediately taken to the streets, it would have ended up accelerating at the end of March when the text was already officially promulgated.
Students taking over from employees
It is difficult not to draw a parallel today with a highly contested reform and a youth mobilized since the return to 49.3 and the rejection by only 9 votes of a motion of no confidence to overthrow Elisabeth Borne. If in January the employees took to the streets, now the young people are beginning to massify the movement, with dozens of higher education establishments blocked.
With an element that also weighs in the balance to motivate high school students in 2023: the high school specialty tests are over. The next written test will now take place on June 14 while the good weather also returns.
A government that does not want to let go
Another common point of the current context with the CPE: that of the determination shown by the government. Dominique de Villepin, who was then targeting the Elysée in a context of internal competition with the Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, wanted at all costs to bring his reform to a successful conclusion.
Acceleration of the legislative calendar, broken dialogue with the student organizations, urgent referral to the Constitutional Council: all the levers had been activated to try to stop the dispute.
Proof of a certain fever, the Matignon tenant even multiplied the slips. He had thus evoked his “resignation” from the National Assembly rostrum instead of the “decision” of the Majors on the future of the CPE.
executive fever
The prime minister did not hesitate this Saturday to show her confidence by judging that she had done “what the French expected of us”, by evoking “compromises” with the right. The defense is surprising to say the least, while from poll to poll the rejection of the reform is constant. She also described the defeat of the vote of no confidence by very few as a “victory”.
It is due to the fact that the Government has also wanted to go very quickly to the examination of the text with article 47.1, unprecedented in the history of the Fifth Republic, added to the blocked vote in the Senate, all this in a context of absence of discussion with the inter-institutional . -Union. However, the plants will be received next week in Matignon.
A determination, the beginning of a retreat?
At the time, this declared determination had ended up collapsing in the face of street pressure against the CPE: the day after the law was validated by the Constitutional Council, to the great relief of Dominique de Villepin, Jacques Chirac finally took the floor to announce that the law would not apply.
Finally, the increase in tension outside the demonstrations, punctuated by dozens of arrests in recent days, further increases the pressure on the police.
“The longer the protest lasts, the more radical it becomes”
During the movement for the withdrawal of the CPE, the last days of the strike were marked by skirmishes. This seriously worries the government, less than a year after the riots in the suburbs, finally pushing Jacques Chirac to withdraw the reform.
“It is clearly seen that the repression is hardening with a level of mobilization that is increasing and that it is inversely proportional to the government’s capacity to convince”, remarks the former figure of the protest Karl Stoeckel.
If the social context is marked by strong differences, between inflation at its highest point today and almost non-existent in 2006, and the outbreak of the yellow vest crisis in 2018, the former members of the fight against the CPE are nonetheless very optimistic.
A new day of mobilization will take place on April 6.
Source: BFM TV
