Unions hope to surpass the 1.2 million protesters registered on the previous day of protests this Tuesday as the strike in the electricity sector is almost complete
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in France this Tuesday to protest against the pension reform promoted by President Emmanuel Macron, which aims to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 in 2030. repeated among the demonstrators, who see the government project as a loss of rights and quality of life. The Ministry of the Interior had not yet registered any relevant incidents in the early hours of this afternoon.
Philippe Martinez, general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), hopes to match or surpass the number of demonstrators on January 19, the day when between 1.2 and 2 million French people mobilized in the streets against the reform. Some 11,000 police and gendarmes are tasked with ensuring the security of the 240 demonstrations organized across the country. Of these, about 4,000 will do in Paris. This means there will be 1,000 more officers than at the January 19 protests.
Public transport, education and the energy sector are the groups most affected by the strikes. The CGT announced that there are between 75% and 100% strikers at TotalEnergies’ main refineries and fuel depots.
In public education, 26.6% of teachers have retired from primary education and 25.22% from secondary education, according to figures from the Ministry of Education. The trade unions, on the other hand, ensure that succession at these levels is 50% and 55%. According to the ministry, as of January 19, there were 42.35% primary school strikes and 34.66% secondary school strikes.
Students are also mobilizing against the pension reform. Sciences Po students have occupied the buildings of this prestigious Parisian university since Monday evening, while other young people organize pickets or protests in front of institutes and universities.
Paris City Hall and other church councils run by opposition parties closed their doors to the public today “in solidarity” with the demonstrators. “This ‘reform’ is an unfair and ruthless regression. Faced with the systematic destruction of our social conquests, we will not resign ourselves. Today, as tomorrow, we will remain mobilized,” wrote the mayor of Paris, the socialist Anne Hidalgo , on Twitter.
The French are experiencing a black Tuesday in public transport, with canceled trains, metros and commuter trains with major delays. One in three high-speed trains TGV and Ouigo will remain in service, although there are regional differences. On the Paris Metro, only the two automatic lines run normally, while other routes are closed and only operational during rush hours.
Macron believes the reform is “essential” to “save” the pay-as-you-go system, in which active workers support pensioners’ benefits. The Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, made it clear this weekend that the government is not prepared to give in to the minimum age required to get a full pension.
“Mr Macron is definitely going to lose. Nobody wants their reform. The more days pass, the more opposition there is,” said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the leftist La Francia Insumisa party, France’s equivalent of Podemos, during the demonstration in Marseille this afternoon.
The anti-pension reform bill reached the National Assembly on Monday, where it will be examined by the Social Affairs Committee before going to plenary. The opposition has tabled some 7,000 amendments to the text. The government expects it to come into effect on September 1. According to a poll by the Elabe Institute, seven in ten French people (72%) oppose Macron’s reform.
Source: La Verdad
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