After the failure of this Wednesday’s meeting with the Government, the French trade unions once again stand up to the controversial pension reform approved by the Executive of Emmanuel Macronwith what they hope will be a new massive mobilization in the streets, the eleventh since January.

The day is anticipated to be decisive to maintain the pressure while awaiting the decision of the Constitutional Councilthe interpretation body of the French Magna Carta, which on April 14 must validate or not the law after its approval on March 16 without the vote of Parliament.

Pending this verdict, for the moment the Government has shown itself inflexible regarding the maintenance of a text that has as its central axis the delay of the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 years.

“We have to be very numerous tomorrow to demand the withdrawal of this unfair reform and carry out the mobilization until the end, until the Government understands that there is no other way out than to withdraw the text,” summed up the new leader of the General Confederation of Labor ( CGT), Sophie Binet, at the end of the unsuccessful inter-union meeting with the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne.

The latter, on the contrary, chose a more conciliatory tone after the meeting and assured that it will continue “always available” to talk. The incidence of the strikes and the level of attendance at the demonstrations this Thursday may offer a new thermometer on whether the social pulse will be able to maintain its intensity despite the attempts of the Executive to turn the page and appease the country.

It can also be a turning point to test the ability of the unions to continue the battle as a united front. “The only solution is for (the reform) to stop,” Laurent Berger, general secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT, the country’s first center), stressed in a late-night interview on the BFM channel, who promised that although there are divergences between unions, there are unity over frontal opposition to the delay of the minimum retirement age.

To begin with, the mobilizations will translate into strikes in sectors such as education and public transport, such as trains and public transport, although they will not be as intense as on previous occasions. In Paris, metro traffic will be normal on most lines and the commuter train will see frequencies partially reduced.

As for flights, airports such as Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes scheduled routes will be cut by 20%but the Parisian Orly, who had been quite affected on other occasions, will not have to cancel trips.

Difficulties also continue in the fuel sector, despite the forced mobilization of workers this week to alleviate supply problems, a situation that is expected to improve in the coming days. The Government has provided for this eleventh day of protests a robust police device, although somewhat smaller than in other appointments. 11,500 agents will be deployed in the country, of which some 4,000 will be in Paris.

The Government: “There is no democratic crisis”

For its part, the Government has replied to the unions that speak of a democratic crisis due to their management of the pension reform, and they reject those allegations that, in their opinion, try to delegitimize that project that they contest on the street. “We are not in a democratic crisis,” the government spokesman, Olivier Véran, stressed on Thursday.

Véran has insisted that the Executive has “respected the legal path” for the approval of the pension reform and that its controversial adoption without submitting it to the vote of the deputies because there was not a sufficient majority in the National Assembly, relying on a device that has been used dozens of times in the past, “it’s constitutional.”

Berger reiterated today, in another interview on the RTL station, his words yesterday that have generated controversy, in the sense that France is experiencing a “social crisis” and a “democratic crisis” and that Macron has the solution by withdrawing that reform.