France is preparing for a series of largescale strikes and protests aimed at curbing the pension reform project, which is facing opposition from unions and farleft and farright parties.
Unions called strikes and demonstrations for next Thursday (19), a day which will be followed by more sectoral work stoppages in the coming weeks, while the government launched an information campaign and interviews to try to persuade public opinion.
For now, the public sector will have strikes in railways, Parisarea transport, education (including universities), police and penitentiaries on Thursday. There will be a power strike in the private sector, commercial airline crews and other smaller sectors of the economy.
“The debate in the National Assembly will be based on mobilization and strikes. The struggle will be fought first in the companies and on the streets,” warned the general secretary of the CGT union, Philippe Martinez, in an interview with state television France 3.
Goal: paralyze the country
The unions aim to shut down the country, as in the series of major strikes in 1995 against Prime Minister Alain Juppé’s plan (under the presidency of Conservative Jacques Chirac) for pension reform, including special rules for public sector companies.
Five million working days were lost, four million in the public sector and one million in the private sector. On December 12 of the same year, unions across the country said two million people (one million according to the police) protested, and just three days later the government withdrew the law.
“We can do even better than back then,” said Philippe Martinez optimistically last Friday.
Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt warned this Sunday that “unions have the right to call for strikes and demonstrations, but not to block the country”.
The main points of the government plan are to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and to increase the contribution years from 42 to 43 by 2027 to qualify for a full pension (previously planned for 2035).
In an interview with the public broadcaster France Inter, Dussopt recalled that the reform takes into account those who started working before the age of 20. For example, if you started your career at 18, you can retire at 60 with a full pension: “You won’t work any more than those who started later.”
opposition
According to a survey by Ifop, one of the most important research institutes in France, published this Sunday in the Journal Du Dimanche, opposition to the project reaches 68% of the French population. The figure is higher among young people, manual workers and the unemployed (71%).
These figures can be explained by the fact that the government’s speech to save the pension system “is not working”, commented Frédéric Dabi, Director General Opinion at Ifop.
However, Dabi sees a “weaker” desire to mobilize on the streets as the government appears to have secured votes in both houses of parliament thanks to the selfassured support of the conservative Os Republicanos party.
However, the government launched a major campaign of action and media exposure to try to persuade the populace.
On Thursday, the day of the mobilizations, French President Emmanuel Macron will be with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for the SpainFrance Summit in Barcelona.