France braces for 'severe disruptions' on third day of pension protests and strikes

 

France braces for 'severe disruptions' on third day of pension protests and strikes

 

An estimated 1.27 million people took to the streets of French cities, towns and village for the previous day of protest on January 31.

 

Le Monde with AFP

Published on February 7, 2023 at 09h21, updated at 11h42 on February 7, 2023

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2023/02/07/france-braces-for-severe-disruptions-on-third-day-of-pension-protests-and-strikes_6014714_7.html

 

Fresh strikes hit trains, schools and refineries in France on Tuesday over an unpopular pension reform pushed by President Emmanuel Macron, with nationwide protests planned for later in the day. A third day of union-backed demonstrations since January 19 is set to test momentum for the protest movement which has vowed to block Macron's bid to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

 

"We are dealing with a president– because he is at the heart of all this – who, with his over-sized ego, wants to prove that he is capable of passing this reform," the head of the hardline CGT union, Philippe Martinez, told RTL radio.

 

Macron made the reform the heart of his re-election campaign last year and is determined to implement it despite fierce opposition from the political left and unions, but also the wider public.

 

Tuesday's protests are the third such nationwide rallies organized since the start of the year. Last week's demonstrations brought out 1.3 million people across the country, according to the police, while unions claimed more than 2.5 million people took part. Either way, they were the largest such protests in France since 2010.

 

Trains and the Paris metro are again expected to see "severe disruptions" on Tuesday, operators said, with around one in five flights at Orly airport south of the capital expected to be canceled. Around half of long-distance trains were running, the state railway company said.

 

But striking rates in education were reported to have decreased. The Ministry of Education reported Tuesday morning a strike rate of 12.87%, down from 23.52% on January 31.

 

More marches are planned for Saturday, although unions for rail operator SNCF said they would not call for a strike at the weekend, a holiday getaway date in some regions.

 

Macron's proposal includes hiking the retirement age from 62 to 64 years old – still lower than in many European countries – and increasing the number of years people must make contributions for a full pension.

 

His ruling party is hoping to pass the bill with the help of allies on the political right, without having to resort to controversial executive powers that dispense with the need for a ballot. But members of the left-wing opposition are staunchly opposed, and have filed for thousands of amendments.

 

Protesters from the left-wing La France Insoumise party hold a banner which reads "Retirement is at 60" during a demonstration against French government's pension reform plan in Nice as part of the third day of national strike and protests in France, February 7, 2023. ERIC GAILLARD / REUTERS

 

'Reform or bankrupcy'

Lawmakers began debating the reform, which would see the age for a full pension raised from 62 to 64 and the mandatory number of years of work extended for a full pension, during a stormy session in parliament on Monday. Members of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne's government struggled to defend the overhaul as necessary in parliament on Monday, with many in the lower house booing.

 

As pressure grew, Borne on Sunday offered a key concession, saying people who started work aged 20 or 21 would be allowed to leave work a year earlier. But the head of the CFDT union, Laurent Berger, dismissed the offer as a mere "band aid" – not a response to widespread public criticism.