Stationary trains, closed schools, …: France is preparing for a day of massive strike Thursday against a pension reform on which President Emmanuel Macron plays his political credit in a fractured country.
The project, with its flagship measure of postponing the retirement age to 64, against 62 today, is coming up against a united trade union front and widespread public disapproval.
Politically, the game is tight for a government that only has a relative majority in the National Assembly. The left and the extreme right are opposed to the reform, only the classical right opposition offering a possibility of compromise.
Benjamin Marol, 45, will demonstrate in Paris. “When you are told that you are going to work two more years in poor salary and working conditions […]it’s the double penalty, “said AFP this history and geography professor for whom” at some point, you have to say stop “.
Eleonora Lombardelli, 41-year-old emergency doctor, will parade in Marseille (south) “in solidarity with those who have a more difficult job” than hers. ” We only have one life ! she recalls.
More than 10,000 police and gendarmes, including 3,500 in Paris, will be mobilized to secure the demonstrations, according to the Ministry of the Interior, which expects in Paris “a few thousand” demonstrators “who could be violent”.
The government called not to transform the mobilization “in blockage” of the country and hoped that it will not last.
Transport at a standstill or almost
“It will be a rough Thursday […]major disruptions in transport ”, estimated the Minister Delegate for Transport, Clément Beaune, calling for the postponement of travel or telecommuting.
Civil aviation has asked airlines to cancel Thursday one in five flights at Paris-Orly airport, due to a strike by air traffic controllers. On the rail side, the national company SNCF provides for “very severely disrupted” traffic with one high-speed train (TGV) in three, or even one in five depending on the line, and barely one regional train in ten on average.
The passages of the Paris metro will also be very reduced with three lines closed, ten open “only at peak times” and a “risk of saturation” on the last three, according to the Parisian transport authority RATP.
Clément Beaune called on motorists who fear fuel shortages caused by possible work stoppages in refineries not to “take precautionary measures”. In practice, some service stations are already dry.
Renewable movement?
Strikes, possibly renewable, are also planned in the electricity sector.
In education, 70% of primary school teachers will be on strike and many schools will be closed – “at least a third” in Paris – according to their main union.
Recognizing the impossibility of predicting the degree of mobilization in the private sector, the boss of the CGT union, Philippe Martinez, estimated that there would be “in certain large groups, rates of strikers which will be around 60-70% “. He wanted a renewable movement “wherever possible”.
An online petition against “unjust and brutal reform”, created by united unions for the first time in 12 years, exceeded 500,000 signatures on Wednesday. Rallies are expected in 215 to 250 cities, according to the sources, who hope for a mobilization exceeding “one million” demonstrators. This symbolic gauge would help the movement to be long-lasting.
Pension reform is part of the campaign promises of President Macron, re-elected last year. The Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, is on the front line to support her in the face of unions which highlight in particular many questions related to people who started working very young, or to those exercising physically demanding jobs.
Mme Borne defends “a project of justice and social progress”, ensuring that “four out of ten French people, the most fragile, the most modest, those who have difficult jobs, will be able to leave before the age of 64”.
A previous project, in 2019, was frozen after strong social unrest and due to the COVID-19 pandemic.