After the successful participation in yesterday’s mobilizations, the unions have called on citizens to “keep fighting.” For his part, Macron reiterated his intention to go ahead with the reform that aims to extend the minimum retirement age to 64 years.
Euskaraz irakurri: Urtarrilaren 31rako beste greba bat deitu dute Ipar Euskal Herrian eta Frantzian, pentsioen erreformaren aurka
Yesterday, Iparralde and the entire French State experienced the first major day of protests against the pension reform that the Government that presides over has put on the table Emmanuel Macron. With massive strikes and demonstrations in the streets, hundreds of thousands of people supported the call for mobilization launched by all the unions. According to the organizers, the march in Baiona brought together more than 10,000 people and the one in Paris, more than 400,000. Likewise, the strike was widely followed in transport services throughout the State and in public schools. Thus, given the success of the call, the unions announced a new day of mobilizations for January 31.
In the opinion of CFDT representative Jean-Pierre Etxeberri, the pension reform “is not acceptable” and “everything possible must be done to withdraw it.” Likewise, Argitxu Dufau, from LAB, harshly criticized the fact that the French Government intends to apply the reform “without previously discussing it with the workers”. “They are ready for the law to enter into force without debate, but they will find themselves up against a very determined working class. Today is the first test,” he insisted.
The objective of the unions is that the massive mobilization of yesterday is the beginning of great mobilizations that force the Executive to back down, just as they achieved in 1995 when a pension reform project with the conservative president Jacques Chirac was withdrawn by the intense pressure from the street, even despite the government’s absolute majority in Parliament.
However, despite the strong popular rejection, Macron was once again determined to go ahead with his plan. In an appearance before the media in Barcelona, he defended that the pension reform finalized by his executive is “fair and responsible” and warned that, in Europe as a whole, the country is “behind” in this matter.
The government proposal plans to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and bring forward the increase from 42 to 43 years of contribution to 2027 in order to enjoy a full retirement (until now planned for 2035). The French Council of Ministers plans to approve the project next week.
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Source: Eitb
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