Present in the Parisian procession, Philippe Martinez called on Tuesday for "harder, more numerous, more massive, and renewable strikes" if "the government persists in not listening".
The secretary general of the CGT was optimistic about the participation in the third day of strikes and demonstrations at the call of the unions, despite the school holidays in part of France.
“We are at the level of 19, if not more”, he judged without giving figures.
“The people, when they are so angry, it is worth listening to them and not persisting in an unjust and unjustified reform,” added Philippe Martinez.
"A democratic folly to remain deaf"
At his side, Laurent Berger felt that it would be "a democratic madness to remain deaf" to the challenge of the reform.
Asked about the fact of hardening the mobilization, the general secretary of the CFDT specified that the unions will try to "do stronger next Saturday".
“What is the democratic perspective of a country whose leaders would not listen to the biggest social mobilization of the last thirty years?
(…) we will not fall into that, we want to show a dignified world of work.
Those who are demonstrating today are the normal working world, they are reasonable people,” insisted the leader of the first union in the private sector.
The trade unionist called on the Assembly to debate on Article 7 which provides for the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64, judging that “it would be madness” otherwise.
"Going up a notch"
“Saturday we will perhaps decide to go up a notch with renewable strikes and blockages”, affirmed at his side the president of the CFTC union Cyril Chabanier, also “reformist”.
He reported an estimated 15% drop in the number of protesters, stressing that "it's not a huge drop as some people are saving up for Saturday".
For Benoît Teste (FSU), "going up a notch, it will be from March 6, after the (school) holidays".
“Until then we must maintain a high level of mobilization”, he declared, while Frédéric Souillot (FO) welcomed an inter-union “united for a long time”.
