Guest of the Grand Jury RTL – Le Figaro-LCI, the secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger hailed a “historic mobilization”, with an attendance that “had never been so high since the beginning of the 1990s”, the next day of the fourth day of demonstration against the pension reform.
It pushed a large number of demonstrators into the streets, more numerous especially in medium-sized towns. “Never have there been so many people at the demonstration on Saturday (…) The government is facing an unprecedented social movement”, he assures.
The Secretary General is already looking to the future. Before the start of the parade in the capital, the leaders of the eight main unions had confirmed their call for a fifth act on February 16. They also said they were ready “to harden the movement” and to “put the country on hold on March 7” if the government and Parliament “remain deaf” to the mobilizations.
A great “serenity” in the conduct of the movement
“We are not under threat”, defended the union leader this Sunday. “Yes on the 7th we want to make a significant day, these are words that I claim”, recognizes Laurent Berger who indicates that the forms of the mobilization of the 7th are not stopped. “It can be like in Spain where traders lower the curtain symbolically for several hours”, illustrated Laurent Berger.
“What will happen in our country if we consider that this movement was just a sequence? There will be resentment. If we persist, the resentment will be enormous and no one will win, ”says the union representative. Despite the passing weeks, the inter-union “has great serenity in the conduct of the movement”. “We have a unity between us: the rejection of 64 years. And we are today on the idea that we have a double weight, that of mobilization and opinion, ”he continues.
“We have no answer, no sign”
“Today is expressed in our streets, a responsible social movement that deserves a response. But today, we have no answer, no sign. The government cannot consider that on March 30, everything ends, ”he continues. Incidentally, the secretary general of the CFDT judged the spectacle of the debates in the Assembly “lamentable”, contrasting with the “dignity” of the demonstrations.
The unions are demanding that article 7, which bears the age measure, can be the subject of a debate and a vote. But nothing is less certain, while the deputies of the Nupes have tabled thousands of amendments. “I don’t think obstruction is a good solution. I am against those who do it for a simple reason: people in the street are responsible and we must therefore be able to debate articles in the National Assembly”.
The first three days of action brought together between 757,000 and 1.27 million people according to the authorities (between nearly two million and more than 2.5 million according to the inter-union), without influencing the executive on the flagship measure of the reform, the raising of the legal retirement age to 64 years.