More than a million people took to the streets this Thursday in France in a day of strike against the project to delay the retirement age to 64 years of President Emmanuel Macron, who is risking his political credit.
From Marseille to Nantes, passing through Paris, a tide of people demonstrated against a reform that they consider unfair, but that the government defends as the only way to avoid a future deficit in the pension fund.
“Are we being taken for a ride! They do not know what it is to work until the age of 64 in these conditions and they could well find the money elsewhere, especially by taxing the capital”, he assured AFP Manon Marc, school cheerleader, in Paris.
Although the Ministry of the Interior estimated the number of protesters at 1.12 million, well below the “more than two million” announced by the CGT union, the goal of one million of the organizers was exceeded.
The Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, highlighted the “good” development of the protests, but showed no sign of backing down: “Let’s keep debating and convincing”, he tweeted.
The reform is one of the key measures that the 45-year-old centrist president promised during his re-election campaign in April, after a first project in 2020 that he abandoned due to the arrival of the pandemic.
“It is a reform above all fair and responsible”, which was “democratically presented and validated”, defended Macron from Barcelona, where he participated in a Spanish-French summit.
After years of crisis (social protest of the yellow vests, pandemic, inflation), it represents a “living test” on his mandate and on “the mark he will leave in history”, according to the newspaper le parisien.
Although his intention was to delay it from 62 to 65 years, approaching the rest of the European countries, its prime minister raised 64, but bringing forward to 2027 the requirement of contribute 43 years to collect a full pension.
These two points crystallize the rejection. According to an Ipsos poll published on Wednesday, although 81% of French consider a reform necessary, 61% reject it and 58% support strikes.
“I dare not even calculate when I will be able to retire”, assured the AFP in Marseille, Jérôme Thevenin, a 52-year-old cook, who worked many years as a seasonal worker.
Despite the fact that the protests were mostly peaceful, clashes with security forces were reported in Paris. Thirty people were arrestedaccording to the police prefecture.
The radical left party La Francia Insumisa plans to demonstrate on Saturday together with youth organizations, two days before the approval of the project by the council of ministers.
The unions called for a new day of mobilization on January 31, in parallel to the beginning of the parliamentary debate on the reform that could last until the end of March. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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