Pensions: Philippe Martinez wants “much more” and plans “renewable strikes”

by time news

Present in the Parisian procession this Tuesday afternoon, Philippe Martinez called for “harder, more numerous, more massive, and renewable strikes” if “the government persists in not listening”.

The secretary general of the CGT was optimistic about the participation in the third day of strikes and demonstrations at the call of the unions. “We are at the level of 19, if not more” he had launched at the start of the afternoon. The CGT finally announced that it had counted 2 million demonstrators in France, including 400,000 in Paris alone. It is 100,000 less than last week for the capital, but effectively at the level of the first day of mobilization. The government has reported 757,000 protesters across the country.

Shortly after the demonstration, Philippe Martinez was satisfied with such figures. “It must be one of the most important social movements for 30 years,” he said at the microphone of BFMTV. “Employees and citizens are lucid: we will have to put in a lot more, do a lot harder to make the President of the Republic give in”, however recognized the boss of the CGT inviting to an even stronger mobilization in the coming weeks. . “This goes through strikes and certainly through renewable strikes,” he insisted.

“A democratic folly to remain deaf”

At his side at the start of the demonstration, Laurent Berger felt that it would be “democratic madness to remain deaf” to the challenge of the reform. Asked about the fact of hardening the mobilization, the general secretary of the CFDT specified that the unions will try to “do stronger next Saturday”.

“What is the democratic perspective of a country whose leaders would not listen to the biggest social mobilization of the last thirty years? (…) we will not fall into that, we want to show a dignified world of work. Those who are demonstrating today are the normal working world, they are reasonable people,” insisted the leader of the first union in the private sector.

The trade unionist called on the Assembly to debate on Article 7 which provides for the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64, judging that “it would be madness” otherwise.

“Going up a notch”

“Saturday we will perhaps decide to go up a notch with renewable strikes and blockages”, affirmed at his side the president of the CFTC union Cyril Chabanier, also “reformist”. He reported an estimated 15% drop in the number of protesters, stressing that “it’s not a huge drop considering that some people are saving up for Saturday”.

For Benoît Teste (FSU), “going up a notch, it will be from March 6, after the (school) holidays”. “Until then we must maintain a high level of mobilization”, he declared, while Frédéric Souillot (FO) welcomed an inter-union “united for a long time”.

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