The mobilization increases, the executive stiffens.
At the end of the second day of union action against the pension reform, the balance of power is tense.
With 2.8 million demonstrators claimed by the CGT, the employee organizations come out of this second meeting invigorated.
"This is one of the biggest events organized in our country for decades,"
welcomed Laurent Berger, at the heart of the Parisian procession.
Despite a drop in strike rates in the public service, at the SNCF or even on the side of National Education, the streets of many cities in France were nevertheless fuller than twelve days earlier.
What reinforce the unions in their will to continue, even to amplify the movement.
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“It will be necessary to harden the tone and the question of strikes including renewable strikes is posed”,
has already warned the leader of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, by anticipating the meeting of the inter-union which took place Tuesday evening.
A desire that tenses the most measured power stations and that could jeopardize the union displayed since the beginning of the year.
With the success of the second day of mobilization against the pension reform, it is now the National Assembly that finds itself under pressure.
Starting with the majority where doubts are beginning to be expressed.
Even before the departure of the processions, the Prime Minister had tried to extinguish them.
“I do not doubt for a second that the majority will be united
, assured Élisabeth Borne before the deputies of the presidential Renaissance party and the allied parties Horizons and MoDem.
In the Hemicycle too, be on the lookout for all the lies.
(…) The oppositions have nothing to offer, except a reduction in pensions, a tax increase, or to break the dynamics of employment
.
»
A hard line
After trying to play on the register of pedagogy, the executive is now camped on a hard line.
Faced with the request for withdrawal of the text, the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt brandished a warning:
"If we withdrew this reform, the system would collapse and the pension of retirees would collapse by 20% as it is written in the COR report.”
This is what the demonstrators, however, are asking for, invigorated by the scale of the processions.
This is also demanded by the opponents of the reform, trade unions first, then politicians.
If the latter this time kept away from the leading square, they nevertheless raised their voices.
As on January 19, for the first day of mobilization, the boss of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, did not want the trade unions and political organizations to mix, even for a simple handshake.
Gathered around 2 p.m. on the esplanade of the town hall of the 13th arrondissement, before the departure of the procession, the elected officials and leaders of the parties making up the Nupes however showed their satisfaction at seeing the movement grow.
After all, they are the ones who will carry the voice of the street in the Hemicycle against the majority.
“We are going to be more and more numerous, with ever more motivation and without violence and we see the panic in the face”,
launched the new national secretary of EELV, Marine Tondelier.
Read also Strikes against pension reform: do town halls have the right to close their doors in solidarity?
At his side, the ex-candidate of the ecologists for president, Yannick Jadot planned at the beginning of the afternoon
"a mobilization of more than 2 million".
The MEP, moreover, did not hesitate to support the strike actions of the trade unions, power cuts for example, not against private homes, but
"from the moment it enters the political field of the exercise of mandates…”
Another presidential candidate, the socialist Anne Hidalgo also joined this rally of Nupès.
Mayor of Paris, she had made the decision, like dozens of other city officials in France, to close the Paris city hall.
An action criticized by the government.
“They confuse their function and their convictions”,
annoyed a minister, denouncing an illegal action.
“Citizen Uprising”
Two hours later, in the heart of the procession, the first socialist secretary Olivier Faure observed the crowd flowing avenue des Gobelins with happiness.
Faced with Emmanuel Macron, his diagnosis is made:
“You cannot lead your country against your people for long.
We can clearly see today that we are far beyond the level of political and trade union mobilizations alone..."
Within the Nupes, the anger is strong against the presidential majority, especially since on Tuesday morning, the conference of presidents chose the referendum motion of the RN rather than that of the Nupes yet voted before.
“They fear that our text may have the ear of the social Gaullists and they choose their favorite opponent,”
thunders MP Jérôme Guedj, member of the Social Affairs Committee.
Like many Nupes parliamentarians, he was divided on Tuesday between the street and the Palais Bourbon.
National secretary of the PCF, Fabien Roussel, present in the Parisian procession, accused the government of
“fracture harshly”
the country.
From Marseille where he had gone, as on January 19, Jean-Luc Mélenchon judged the situation
"
quite exceptional
"
.
“There will be a before and an after
”, promises the leader of the Insoumis, welcoming a
“form of citizen insurrection”.
Who could however mark a break, the time of the winter holidays.