The struggle continues despite everything. Even if the mobilization of the past few weeks has plummeted, the strike movement has disrupted transport much less and the draft law on pension reform has started its legislative process, the opponents remain mobilized. And this Wednesday, the unions are organizing the eighth national interprofessional day, while the severe warning from the Council of State has not shaken the determination of the executive to go all the way.
This day of demonstrations comes as the two bills, one organic, the other ordinary, started their journey in the National Assembly after their adoption Friday in the Council of Ministers. Discussions in the Hemicycle are scheduled to start on February 17.
As usual, the processions in the region will start from the middle of the morning, while in Paris, the demonstrators will leave at 1:30 p.m. from Place d'Italie (13th arrondissement) to reach the Invalides (7th), after having notably passed through Port-Royal and Montparnasse.
Opponents of the text, who had already mobilized in the street Friday (between 249,000 people according to the Interior Ministry and 1.3 million according to the CGT) were therefore exhilarated by the publication on Friday of a particularly critical opinion of the council State, which regretted not having had the time to "guarantee legal certainty as best as possible" of the reform project. The highest French administrative court has criticized the use of 29 orders that "lose overall visibility", and pointed to "incomplete" financial projections.
"I never thought this reform would be simple"
It is “an assumed choice of the government” to write “as and when the consultations succeed,” however defended Agnès Buzyn, the Minister of Health. Edouard Philippe, arrested on several occasions Tuesday in the Assembly, again defended the reform and its impact study, "very complete". "I never thought that this reform would be simple because the subject is indeed complicated," acknowledged the Prime Minister.
Laurent Berger, the general secretary of the CFDT, however favorable to a universal system of pensions by points, regretted the “bias” of this study which is based on an equilibrium age at 65 years. “We have been asking for figures for months and months. There we have them and they are very questionable, ”he said.
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VIDEO. A torchlight march against pension reform
The opinion of the Council of State gave arguments to the opponents of the reform. "It has been months that the government is preparing to pass a vague reform, unfounded and only argued by the need to save," responded Monday in Humanity Philippe Martinez, the secretary general of the CGT. For his counterpart of Force Ouvrière, Yves Veyrier, "the government has absolutely no control over its subject".
How to revive the movement?
The two leaders have been leading the sling against the reform since December 5, with Solidaires, the FSU and youth organizations (Unef, MNL, UNL), behind this eighth day of strikes and demonstrations. This time, the CFE-CGC is not associated with the mobilization.
But the strikes are running out of steam, even stopping, including in transport, the spearhead of the movement. RATP and SNCF traffic will therefore be "almost normal" on Wednesday.
In particular, there are ports and docks, which call for a 24-hour strike. And in the waste sector, CGT Energie renewed until February 3 the shutdown of the three Parisian incineration plants decided last Thursday, forcing Syctom, which treats the waste of 6 million Ile-de-France residents, to "manage day by day the day ”with other centers the treatment of 6000 tonnes of garbage.
This new day comes on the eve of the installation by Edouard Philippe of the financing conference, within which the social partners must reflect by the end of April on means to guarantee the financial balance of the pension system from here 2027.
The intersyndicale meets Wednesday evening to decide on the continuation of the movement, but actions are already planned for Thursday and Friday.
