Will the failure of the first meeting between the government and union leaders reinforce the protests against the pension reform? Or will fatigue set in after two months of massive demonstrations in France? The unions promote this Thursday the 11th day of protests and strikes – the ninth under the legal framework of a general strike – throughout France against the unpopular rise in the minimum retirement age of 62 to 64 years (with 43 years of contributions to receive a full pension). It is the first national mobilization after the sterile meeting on Wednesday between Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and the leaders of the workers’ organizations.
More of 300 demonstrations they are summoned in the whole of the neighboring country. Between 600,000 and 800,000 people they will participate in them, according to the estimates (not always exact) of the intelligence services. More than 750,000 demonstrators – up to two million, according to the unions – had protested in the last protest day of this type on March 28. The first data this Thursday from protesters and strikers in key sectors, such as transport or education, point to a bottom tracking compared to last week. With up to five nationwide strikes with around a million protesters, according to stark police data, the current wave of protests represents the largest in the 21st century in the bustling neighboring country.
keep the pressure
Without being the most impressive, the fatigue is noticeable after two and a half months of protests and general strikes almost every week, the unions hope this Thursday with a consistent mobilization that will serve to maintain the pressure at a time when many of the eyes are put in the Constitutional Council. The French equivalent of the Constitutional Court will rule on April 14 on the measure, imposed by decree and whose parliamentary debates were cut short due to multiple legal mechanisms by the Executive.
“There is a democratic crisis and a crisis of the institutions”, Laurent Berger, general secretary of the moderate CFDT, the French union with the largest number of affiliates, assured from the front rows of the demonstration in Paris. The approval of the reform through a controversial government decree —despite the rejection of around 70% of the population, according to polls— fueled the feeling of a lack of democracy and damaged institutions of the Fifth Republic. The government “lives in a parallel reality,” lamented the CGT leader, Sophie Binet, who replaced Philippe Martinez last week at the head of the country’s second largest trade union organization.
Macron denies that there is “a democratic crisis”
Despite Prime Minister Borne’s attempts to calm things down a bit, Emmanuel Macron has been more defiant of the unions. “There is no democratic crisis. (…) If people wanted to retire at 60, they should not have elected me as President of the Republic ”, he declared from China, where he began an official trip on Wednesday. With his inflexible position, the centrist leader has pushed through one of the most controversial measures of his second term. But he has paid a very high political cost, much higher than expected when the reform was presented on January 10.
Macron’s popularity has fallen to its lowest levels since the yellow vest revolt at the end of 2018. The voting intention of the far-right Marine Le Pen increases worryingly. Despite this, the Executive is concentrating its dialectical attacks against the left, which it has come to label as “intellectual terrorism”, according to what the ambitious Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, said in an interview on Sunday, whose speech does not stand out precisely for moderation.
According to the latest polls, in the hypothetical case —and fictitious since Macron cannot run again in the next presidential elections— of a duel between the president and Le Pen being repeated, this time the ultra candidate would win with 55% of the votes. Undoubtedly, a reflection of the social and political crisis in France.