(Paris) More family mobilizations and often on the rise. With the fourth day of action against the pension reform on Saturday, the unions hope to finally be heard by the executive, failing which they say they are ready to “bring France to a halt” on March 7.
Before the departure in the early afternoon of the Parisian procession – 500,000 people strong, according to the CGT – the leaders of the eight main unions confirmed their call for a fifth act on February 16. They also said they were ready “to harden the movement” and to “put the country on hold on March 7” if the government and Parliament “remain deaf” to the mobilizations.
This announcement “of a hardening on March 7, that leaves a little time if they want to react”, affirmed the number one of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, adding that “we are not in the logic of strike renewable”. His CGT counterpart Philippe Martinez stressed that “the ball (was) in the court” of the executive.
The inter-union at the RATP has already called Saturday for the first renewable strike of the movement, from March 7.
PHOTO CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Protesters call for a general strike in Marseille.
For this first mobilization on a Saturday, the processions seemed to gather more people than the third act, on February 7, with a growing gap between the figures of the authorities and the unions. In Clermont-Ferrand, the unions notably claimed 50,000 participants against 8,000 according to the prefecture. In Toulouse, the CGT claimed a record number of “more than 100,000 demonstrators”, the prefecture 25,000. In Nantes, they were 23,000 according to the police, 70,000 according to the unions.
On placards in the parades, one could read “Macron, stop your calculations, we know that you feather us”, “I am not Dalida, I do not want to die on stage” or even “For the retirement of the reform” .
“I’m here because it’s Saturday, the week it’s not possible”, explained in the Lyon procession Marie-Pierre Couvreur, 43, an engineer, who came with her three children to show them “that it is necessary to defend oneself “.
Upstream, Mr. Berger had estimated that exceeding one million demonstrators “would be a great success”.
According to police sources, attendance was expected to be between 600,000 and 800,000 people, including 90,000 to 120,000 in Paris.
To control these crowds, 10,000 police and gendarmes were mobilized, including 4,500 in the capital, where a few incidents occurred in the afternoon, including a car overturned on the road and set on fire.
There was no strike at SNCF or RATP, but one out of two flights was canceled at Orly due to an unexpected strike by air traffic controllers.
The first three days of action brought together between 757,000 and 1.27 million people according to the authorities (between nearly two million and more than 2.5 million according to the inter-union), without influencing the executive on the measure- flagship of the reform, the raising of the legal retirement age to 64 years.
From Brussels, where he was taking part in a European summit, President Emmanuel Macron seemed to be looking elsewhere on Thursday, pleading for “work to continue in Parliament”, without the challenge “blocking […] the life of the rest of the country.
“Macron is in the wrong country”
The unions, on the contrary, underline the risk of a radicalization of the base and also of a form of “social despair” which results in a vote for the far right at the ballot box.
“Mr. Macron, if he is counting on wear and tear, is in the wrong country”, judged in Marseille the leader of the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon, believing that his way of acting is “an incitement to violence”.
“If the government does not hear (the mobilization) it is very serious”, judged in the Lille procession Fabien Roussel (PCF).
The unions are demanding that in the Assembly, article 7, which bears the age measure, can be put to a vote. But nothing is less certain, while the deputies of Nupes have tabled thousands of amendments, debated in a tumultuous atmosphere.
“We want to see who will actually come out for or against” the age measure, said Mr. Martinez, indicating that the unions intend to “call on today” the parliamentarians of the Republican arc so that they measure “ their responsibility”.
In addition to the day of February 16 – when the leaders of the inter-union have planned to demonstrate together in Albi – and the high point of March 7, when the text will have arrived in the Senate, the unions are also considering actions for the 8 March, Women’s Rights Day, “to highlight the major social injustice of this reform”.