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The main French newspapers this Monday (30) predict a strong participation of strikers in the movement scheduled for this Tuesday (31) across the country. After having gathered more than 1 million people against the reform of pensions, on January 19, “the unions want to hit hard” on this second day of action, highlights Le Figaro, who counts more than 300 places of demonstration and the stoppage of schools, refineries and transportation networks.
The government project begins to be analyzed this Monday by the deputies. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne maintains the objective of extending the retirement age to 64, until 2030. Le Figaro warns that some professional federations may opt for the blockade of the country, in a “logic of radicalization” of the movement and already plan to repeat the strike on the 7th and 8th of February.
The newspaper Libération analyzes that the debate on the reform in the National Assembly could “be more complicated than the macronists predict”, who until now do not know if they will have enough support for the text considered controversial. Gathered in a commission, as of today, deputies have the task of analyzing around 5,000 amendments made to the project, before debates in plenary, as of February 6th.
The lack of consensus among the deputies of the LR (Os Republicanos), a right-wing party, is pointed out as one of the main divergences in the government camp to pass the reform, according to Libé. For the opposition representatives, “an equivalent or stronger protest than the previous one could make the government back down”, believes a Socialist deputy interviewed by the report.
The newspaper Le Monde notes that three-quarters of French people consider the project unfair and unnecessary. “The government did not know how to justify its policy, giving the impression of creating a problem and not of bringing a solution”, analyzes Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet, professor at Science Po.
Heard by the report, Laurent Berger, secretary general of the French Democratic Labor Confederation, which brings together several unions, calls on the government to “listen to the claims of the demonstrators against the reform” before the second day of inter-union mobilization, this Tuesday.