Unions are dynamic as 1.27 million French people protest against pension reform
PARIS (AP) — About 1.27 million people took to the streets of French towns and villages on Tuesday, according to the Interior Ministry, in new massive protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the age of two-year retirement.
The turnout surpassed turnout in a previous series of strikes and protests against plans to reform the pension system, in a significant victory for unions. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has been forced to acknowledge that her government “hears” the “questions and doubts” raised by the reforms which would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
The eight unions organizing the protests have announced that they will hold further protests on February 7 and 11.
“Faced with massive rejection, the government must withdraw its reform,” said Patricia Drevon of the Force Ouvrière union, alongside colleagues from other unions in a rare public show of solidarity.
The powerful CGT union said 2.8 million protesters marched on Tuesday.
The national strikes and the protests have been a crucial test for both Macron and his opponents. The government has insisted on its determination to push through Macron’s election promise of reform the French pension system. But strong popular resentment will bolster efforts by unions and left-leaning lawmakers to try to block the bill.
Later Tuesday, Prime Minister Borne extended an olive branch to protesters and unions, tweeting that: “Pension reform raises questions and doubts. We hear them.
It suggests changes could be in sight, but likely without a full pullout as protesters are demanding. His tweet said the debate opening in parliament “will allow us… to enrich our project with the aim” of securing the future of the French pension system. “It’s our responsibility.”
As recently as this weekend, Borne had insisted that raising the retirement age to 64 was “no longer negotiable”. And Macron on Monday defended the reform as “essential”.
In the capital, police said 87,000 people took to the streets, down from 80,000 during the first major pension protest on January 19, when authorities said 1 million people protested across the country. Union estimates had doubled that figure.
Paris’s generally peaceful march was marred by scattered clashes between a small group of black-clad radicals and riot police, who fired tear gas next to Les Invalides, the site of Napoleon’s tomb where the march which took place stretched across the city ended. Police reported 30 arrests there and elsewhere along the route.
Some 11,000 police were on duty for around 250 protests across the country.
“Today, the government is in a corner. He just has to withdraw his reform,” said Erik Meyer of the Sud Rail union – one of the eight who organized the march – on BFM TV.
Veteran left-wing leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon celebrated “a historic day” of protests and predicted Macron’s defeat.
“It’s not often that we see such mass mobilization,” he said, speaking in the southern city of Marseille. “It’s a form of citizen insurrection.”
The protests were not limited to major French cities. In Ouessant, a small western island of some 800 people off the tip of Brittany, around 100 protesters gathered outside Mayor Denis Palluel’s office and marched, he said.
Palluel told The Associated Press that the prospect of having to work longer alarmed sailors on the island with strenuous ocean work.
“It is important to retire at a reasonable age, because life expectancy is not very long,” he said.
Demonstrations by people of all ages were loud and colorful, with sirens, megaphones and smoke bombs, in keeping with a long tradition in France of bringing democracy to the streets.
In addition to the protests, strikes disrupted services across France on Tuesday.
Rail operator SNCF said most train services had been cut in the Paris region, all other regions and on France’s flagship high-speed network linking cities and major towns. The Paris metro has also been hit hard by station closures and cancellations.
Electricity workers in key positions, who were not allowed to leave their jobs, showed their support for the protesters by temporarily reducing the electricity supply, without causing blackouts, the producer said. EDF electricity.
Jamila Sariac, 60, a civil servant, said the pension system should be left alone.
“Social protection is an important step in our society, a step that the government wants to take,” she said, adding that strikes would more effectively pressure the government than protests. “We owe it to our elders who have contributed to the wealth of France.”
Construction worker Said Belaiba was among travelers whose morning train from Paris to the city of Lyon was cancelled, forcing him to wait. Still, the 62-year-old said he opposed the proposed reform.
“My job is physically exhausting,” he said. “You can’t go over 64.”
Strikes have also hit schools, with the Education Ministry reporting that around a quarter of teachers have stopped working, fewer than during the first round of protests.
French media also reported walkouts at oil refineries. Radio France Inter played music instead of its usual morning talk shows and apologized to its listeners because employees were on strike.
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John Leicester reported from Le Pecq, France.
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