After three calls to demonstrate during the week (January 19 and 31, then February 7), the mobilization day on Saturday February 11 will be the first to be held on a weekend.
A long-standing request from the CFDT.
According to the reformist union, this particularity should make it possible to bring together a new audience which has not necessarily been able to move during previous parades.
Asked Friday at the microphone of Franceinfo, Laurent Berger did not hesitate to beat the recall to bring back as many people as possible:
“It is necessary that those who have not been able to demonstrate the other times (…) can do so by bringing their neighbours, their children…”,
he insisted.
"A Saturday is more conducive to violence"
The thickness of the processions will be particularly scrutinized by the government, after the drop in attendance recorded during the last day.
More than the number, the executive fears excesses.
“A Saturday is more conducive to violence, because it can bring back antivax and “yellow vests”,
worries a government source.
Until now, the demonstrations during the week were very trade union, with many activists in the processions, it was very organized.
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Whatever happens, the 13 inter-union organizations have already planned to take stock of these first four days of protest.
If new dates have already been announced, in this case February 16 and March 7, there is no doubt that some central will put on the table the question of the hardening of the movement.
Moving “up a gear”
Despite several adjustments to the text, the executive has not moved on the heart of the reform, namely the decline in the retirement age to 64, demanded by the unions.
The latter believe that the concessions obtained are more the result of political calculations – obtaining the vote of LR deputies – than a consideration of social discontent.
And Philippe Martinez, leader of the CGT, threatened on several occasions to move the challenge
"to the top speed"
if
"the executive continued to be stubborn".
Read alsoPension reform: the authorities fear a radicalization of the protest
The options available range from the renewable strike to the implementation of “punches” actions, such as the blocking of refineries or gas and electricity cuts.
A shift that some centrals like Solidaires are already calling for:
"We want to hit harder from the start"
, say Murielle Guilbert and Simon Duteil, the general delegates.
cold relationships
Relations between the centrals and the government seem to have never been so cold since the start of the protest.
The appeal, from Brussels, of the President of the Republic to
the “spirit of
responsibility
”
of the unions so that their movement does not block
“the life of the rest of the country”
was very badly received by the latter.
An “anachronistic”
message ,
according to the leader of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, who got angry with the executive in terms rarely heard in his mouth:
“Excuse me, but, damn it, we are not responsible since the beginning?"
he fumed Friday morning.
As for Philippe Martinez, he returned the message to the Head of State:
"I appeal to the government's responsibility, to take into account this world of work which expresses a deep rejection of 64-year-olds",
insisted the leading cégétiste on Europe 1.
Read alsoWho really are these French people who are demonstrating against pension reform?
In this war of public opinion, the unions are brandishing the polls, which show nearly two-thirds of French people opposed to raising the retirement age.
The government recognizes that no one happily wants to make an effort and work longer.
But pleads that deep down the French know well that necessity makes law.
SEE ALSO
- Strike against pension reform: what to expect this Saturday, February 11?
