Olivier Véran welcomes the course of the demonstrations “calmly and without violence”

“France is reconnecting with an ancestral tradition which consists of being able to demonstrate calmly, without overflow and without violence”, salutes Sunday February 12 Olivier Véran, spokesman for the government, in the program Questions politiques on France Inter, with franceinfo and Le Monde, the day after a fourth day of mobilization against the pension reform. This Saturday, these demonstrations brought together 963,000 people in France according to the Ministry of the Interior and more than 2.5 million according to the CGT.

>> INFOGRAPHICS. Demonstrations against the pension reform: visualize the mobilization figures compared to previous movements

The spokesperson for the executive thus acknowledges that he “there were a lot of people” in the street, “families, young people, less young people”. Olivier Veran “Takes his hat off to the unions” as well as to the prefect of police of Paris “Laurent Nuñez who made sure it didn’t get out of hand”.

The government spokesperson draws a comparison with the demonstrations of the Yellow Vests in 2018 and 2019 during which “there was damage and injuries”. But while making a parallel, he maintains that we are talking here “from two different contexts”, to respond to Laurent Berger. On franceinfo Friday, February 12, the boss of the CFDT believed that the Yellow Vests had been able to obtain progress from the government “because there was a lot of violence and looting”. This Sunday, Olivier Véran explains that “the Yellow Vests movement had raised expectations from part of the population who called for answers”as “the increase in the activity bonus”. “There, we are within the framework of something more classic within the framework of the Fifth Republic with a necessary bill but which leads to dispute”he adds.

“The government has changed its project several times: from 65 to 64, then the long career arrangements extended to 20-21 year olds.”

Olivier Veran

at franceinfo

Faced with the mobilizations, Olivier Véran highlights the importance of “parliamentary debate” which opened at the beginning of the week with the examination of the bill in the hemicycle of the National Assembly. “The parliamentarians were elected a few months ago by the French, including by those who demonstrated yesterday, to represent them, work, discuss and amend a bill”, he adds, specifying once again that “The government is listening”.