In France, hundreds of thousands of people have again protested against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform – the constitutional council wants to judge its legality this Friday. In many cities, the unions had called for rallies for the twelfth time on Thursday.
According to the Interior Ministry, 380,000 people across the country took part in the protests, and the trade unions spoke of over a million participants. In any case, support for the protests fell noticeably again compared to the previous week.
Across the country, roads, railway tracks and refineries were blocked on Thursday – but in the end the impairments were manageable. Garbage collectors in Paris went on strike again and the CGT union threatened to turn the capital into a public dump until the reform was withdrawn.
The deployment of 11,500 police officers was planned, 4,200 of them in Paris. The protests, which were initially peaceful for many weeks, have recently repeatedly resulted in violence and clashes. In Paris, banks and expensive shops protected their shop windows with wooden panels as a precaution. In the capital, demonstrators broke into the headquarters of the luxury group LVMH on Thursday and set off fireworks. Clashes between protesters and the police were reported from Nantes and Rennes. There were also some scuffles and arrests in Paris.
What will become of the protests?
The protests are directed against the gradual increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. With the reform that has now been passed, the middle government wants to close an impending gap in the pension fund. The dispute aggravated because the government pushed the text without a vote by the National Assembly. President Emmanuel Macron wants the reform to come into force by the end of the year.
Macron defended his controversial reform against constant criticism on Wednesday and promised a dialogue with the unions. The country must continue to make progress and he wants to talk to the social partners about how things are going. The reform is necessary, the public budgets must be brought into balance. On Friday, the Constitutional Council is to announce the result of an examination of the reform project. He could overturn part or all of the reform or declare it constitutional. A large police force protected the building of the Constitutional Council on Thursday, which the Paris demonstration marched past.
Should the constitutional council essentially confirm the reform, there is no longer any prospect for the trade unions of the project being toned down or cancelled. Nevertheless, there will be further demonstrations, the union said. The head of the CFDT union, Laurent Berger, has already mentioned May 1st as the next protest day. Macron’s invitation to dialogue was met with annoyance. The new head of the CGT union, Sophie Binet, said they had wanted to talk to Macron for a month. A meeting when everything is decided makes no sense.
