Third day of strike in France against Macron’s pension reform

All the French trade unions organize this Tuesday the third day of strikes and demonstrationsafter the massive protests of January 19 and 31, against the pension reform of the President’s Government, Emmanuel Macronwhich has just started the parliamentary debate in a bumpy way.

As in the two previous days, the strikes were felt this morning, especially in the public transportin the teaching or in the energyfor example with the cancellation of the 20% of flights planned at the Parisian airport of Orlythe second in the country.

The National Railway Society (SNCF) had warned since Sunday that because of the workers who have gone on strike it has to suppress between half and two thirds of the high-speed trains (TGV).

On international lines, a quarter of the flights have been cancelled. Eurostar that go to London, half of the Lyria that go to Switzerland, some of the Thalys that go to Brussels and two thirds of the other trains, among which are those of the Paris-Barcelona corridor.

The strike on the railways, which greatly affects the suburbs of paris (between half and 80% have been cancelled, depending on the lines) and regional (70% cancelled, on average), will continue on Wednesday.

The situation of the metropolitan public transport in Paris is very complicated throughout the day, with only two of the 14 metro lines (the automatic ones) operating normally and the rest with between a third and a half of the usual trains in circulation.

In energy, the strikers of the state electric company EDF they have reduced production by about 4,500 megawattsequivalent to the power of more than four nuclear reactors, but without causing cuts or blackouts.

Beyond the strikes, the main indicator of the success of this new protest will be the number of protesters. On January 31, the police counted 1.272 million, while the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) calculated that there were 2.8 million in the around 250 marches throughout the country.

Its general secretary, Philippe Martinezhas denounced this Tuesday the lack of listening to Macron, who in his opinion has “an oversized ego” that “he wants to demonstrate that he is capable of carrying out a reform regardless of the position of public opinion.”

In an interview with the RTL radio station, Martínez warned that the president “plays with fire.” Opposite, the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, in charge of defending the reform, insisted this Tuesday in another interview with the RMC radio station that “it is necessary” if the pay-as-you-go regime is to be preserved, in which current workers pay the pensions of retirees. Dussopt affirmed that without changes, the system will have a deficit of 1,800 million euros next year and 12,500 million annually from 2027 and 25,000 million annually on the horizon of 2040.

The main axis of the reform is the delay of the minimum retirement age from the current 62 years to 64, and an acceleration of the increase in the contribution period necessary to have a full pension, which will go from 42 years now to 43 in 2027.