The French country celebrates the third day of strikes and demonstrations against the project that aims to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64
The pulse between the unions and the government continues in the streets of France. Some 750,000 citizens demonstrated this Tuesday on the third day of protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform, according to the Interior Ministry. The General Confederation of Labor (CGT), one of the main trade unions in the country, increased the number to two million. There was also a dance of numbers in Paris. The CGT had 400,000 participants, while the police reduced them to 57,000 in attendance.
“There is no truce. The battle will continue until victory,” the CGT promised in a statement, describing the third day of mobilizations as a “success” despite fewer protesters compared to the previous protest. On January 31, between 1.2 million people gathered, according to the security forces, and 2.8 according to the power plants. On the 19th of the same month, according to official figures, between 1.1 million and according to the unions 2 million protested.
“If the government remains stubborn despite the mobilizations, it will have to go faster with stronger, longer actions and harder, more numerous, more massive and indefinite strikes,” warned Philippe Martinez, general secretary of the CGT in the Paris demonstration.
Tuesday’s drop in protesters could have contributed to school holidays in a third of the country since unions declared two protests this week. There will be another demonstration on Saturday.
Macron wants to gradually increase the minimum retirement age from the current 62 to 64 by 2030. He also wants to speed up a measure that would require French people to be 43 years old to be entitled to a full pension.
The debate in the National Assembly started on Monday. The government, which does not have an absolute majority in the lower house, hopes for the support of Los Republicanos (moderate right) to implement the pension reform promised in the election campaign. The left and the extreme right are against it.
Source: La Verdad
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