The French president, Emmanuel Macron, defended on the night of Tuesday the pension reform, their project of campaign is more ambitious but that, since it was announced at the beginning of December, has resulted in one of the mobilizations harder against his Government. In his speech of new year’s Eve, in which traditionally the rulers gauls expressing their “intentions” for the coming year, Macron said that the project “will take place”. At the same time, he asked for an “appeasement” of the protests, which have already surpassed that in 1995 forced the then prime minister, Alain Juppé, to withdraw its own reform, and insisted that his proposal to change the current pension system to convert the 42 different regimes in one “universal” for points is more “fair” for all the French.
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“The pension reform will take place because it is a project of justice and of social progress,” said Macron, in his speech of 18 minutes, in which he devoted almost a fourth part to this question. For this reason, he expressed his hope that their prime minister, Édouard Philippe, in charge of the negotiations, “find the way of a quick compromise” with all those trade unions and employers “who want to” engage in a dialogue.
despite his firm decision to complete the reform, the president said that not long ago a deaf ear to the “fears” and “anxieties” expressed these last few weeks, but that has also been stressed, “lies and manipulations”.
“don’t give in to the pessimism nor the opposition,” warned the French president, and urged the French to be open to such changes are often reluctant. “Do you give up to change our country and our daily lives? No, because that would be abandoning what the system has already abandoned,” he said. “And would betray our children and the children of these, who will have to pay the price of our resignation”, he warned.
In an end of year marked by a unique theme in France, the strike against pension reform -for almost a month deeply disturbs the traffic national rail and metropolitan transport services of the main cities, especially Paris-the speech of the president was awaited with an anticipation unused. In the end, despite the fact that it was one of his reforms star, Macron has barely spoken about it, leaving the weight of the negotiations —and communication— to your prime minister.
however, the Elysée had already pre-in his speech Macron would not go into details of the reform nor in the possibility of making concessions, such as the elimination or modification of the retirement age to 64 years of age, as stated by the Government in mid-December, in full escalation of the tensions with the unions. Although the legal age for retirement remains 62 years, the submission of the proposed reform, Philippe indicated that to achieve a full pension would go to the 64 years, a fact that put against even the moderate unions such as the CFDT, which until then had not joined the protests but that they considered that such a change “crosses a red line”.
this position have been together for almost two tens of deputies of the wing more to the left of the party Macron, The Republic Launched (LREM), who in a column published in the newspaper Libération claim that set for all the sectors of the reference 64 is a decision that is “socially unjust” and asked why an “alternative”.
“The universal nature of the pension scheme must be able to guarantee a decent retirement for all, especially thanks to its mechanism of solidarity, but must also adapt to the ways of life of each one”, written by the 18 signatories.
Gestures without response
On the eve of christmas Eve, the president announced that he will give up his annuity as head of State, of 6.220 euros a month. In addition, he asked for a truce for the christmas holidays. Neither his action nor his appeal to work and the strike has continued all these days, with more or less intensity, and without likely to be placated, while the president remained silent, and retired with his family in the fort Brégançon, the vacation residence of the heads of State in the south of France.
Neither seems to calm down the pulse between the Government and trade unions, who throw each other to blame for the impasse in the situation. On Sunday, the secretary of State for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, accused in the Journal du Dimanche to the CGT, one of the unions more militant in this conflict, “the practice of a trade unionism of a systematic opposition to all reform, blocking and, at times, intimidation”. From the same pages of the weekly, the leader of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, accused the Government of “playing to the rot” of the situation so that this becomes unsustainable and force the hand of those who oppose its reform.
“Emmanuel Macron is seen as the man of the new world, but imitates Margaret Thatcher,” he said. According to Martinez, which demands the total withdrawal of the project of pension, the speech of new year’s Eve of the president was to serve for the representative admits that “has it wrong”, something that has not happened.
