The Issy-les-Moulineaux incinerator has been blocked for several weeks. The strikers who followed the intervention of the President of the Republic, this Wednesday at midday, predict “the generalization of blockages” and still demand the withdrawal of the pension reform.
On the picket line of the incinerator of Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine) blocked for several weeks, the TV is on, Wednesday March 22, to follow, under the red tent in the entrance of the building , the interview with the President of the Republic. Emmanuel Macron appears on the screen, but after a few minutes, Frédéric Probel, general secretary of the CGT energy union in Bagneux, turns his back on him. “It’s unbearable to hear that. So there, I listen, but I don’t watch, I don’t want to watch it”, he curses.
“Emmanuel Macron gives the finger of honor to all comrades. Our regime is balanced and surplus. Let us go.”
Frédéric Probel, general secretary of the CGT energy union in Bagneuxat franceinfo
During the thirty minutes that the speech lasts, the remarks fuse. “He forgot that after the second round of voting [à la présidentielle] he had said: this vote obliges me… blah blah blah”, launches a striker. The President of the Republic is questioned about a possible return to normal, the strikers answer in his place: “When he has removed the reform” because otherwise “it will be the generalization of blockages (…) this is what he has in fact just ordered the people”.
>>> “Contempt and foutage of mouth”, “lie”: the unions react to the speech of Emmanuel Macron on the pension reform
“He thinks he’s at a cocktail party”; continues François Ruffin deputy LFI who joined the strikers “We have a country where there are lots of blockages everywhere where tomorrow there will be demonstrations with one or two million people. And there, he thinks he is at a cocktail party where he is chatting …” “In fact, it’s almost provocative. In fact, he would like us to break everything, but we didn’t break anything, engages Frédéric Probel. On the other hand, he and his government are likely to be in pain”. The speech is coming to an end. The pension reform will have to apply by the end of the year, maintains the president. “Them with all their gang, it’s going to sting, I assure you it’s going to sting. They’re going to realize who the invisible ones are. We’re resisting and that’s the message we’re going to get across because it there is no other solution in fact. See you soon, see you soon, see you soon”, replies the trade unionist to Emmanuel Macron.
Emmanuel Macron “is in an ivory tower”
This intervention was useless, denounces Julien, manager of an operating team at the Issy-les-Moulineaux incinerator, “He is not even able to say yes in the end, it was hot for us. And to recognize the difficulty he had in getting this reform passed. And in the end, he is stubborn. We have someone who no longer in control, he is in his ivory tower and finally he will go all the way. He does not change anything. We thought that there was going to be a reshuffle, that he was perhaps going to leave the Prime Minister. Tomorrow everyone is going to demonstrate. The incinerator remains shut down for now until Sunday. But people are determined not to let go because it would be a shame to let go now.”
“We will go as far as withdrawal”sing the strikers on the picket line in front of the incinerator at the end of Emmanuel Macron’s interview.