The French will take to the streets again this Monday to protest against the pension reform that coincides with May Day, International Workers’ Day. The unions hope for a historic mobilization, while the government hopes that this day of demands will be the last before the page is turned on President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular project. The plants had not paraded together on this date since 2009, when the financial crisis broke out. This is the thirteenth day of protests against the pension reform, which sets the minimum retirement age in France at 64, two years more than before. The law, promulgated by Macron on April 15, will come into force on September 1, but unions are pushing for the executive to repeal the law. “There can be no return to normalcy if this reform is not withdrawn,” Sophie Binet, the new secretary general of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), repeated this Monday, unwilling to “switch to anything else.” go until (…the text) is not revoked.” The Interior Ministry has mobilized 12,000 police and gendarmes for this event, but Laurent Berger, Secretary General of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT), is more realistic. “I do not believe that the government or the president of the republic will withdraw,” Berger admitted in an interview on radio station France Info. In addition to protesting against the pension reform, the trade unions are also demanding on the street “the increase in wages, equality between women and men, an improvement in working conditions and that environmental challenges must be taken into account”, Binet explained on the television channel France 2 Drone Surveillance The Interior Ministry has mobilized 12,000 police and gendarmes by May 1, of which 5,000 will be in Paris. The authorities expect between 1,500 and 3,000 ‘yellow vests’ and between 1,000 and 2,000 radical elements at the demonstrations. Several French prefects have given the green light to using drones equipped with cameras to monitor the marches, a decision criticized by the Association for the Defense of Constitutional Liberties (Adelico), which fears the protests will be “constantly absorbed in a massive and systematic way”. in France. The mobilization against the pension reform has led more French people to join the unions. The CGT and the CFDT have each gained 30,000 new members since January, while the membership of Fuerza Obrera (FO) has increased by 30%.
Source: La Verdad
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