The opposition to the pension reform Emmanuel Macron is eroding slightly, but resists and is far from fold sails. After the fourth day of national demonstrations in a little over a month, yesterday, is preparing the fifth for tomorrow. The French Government is confident that the gradual loss of support to the protest, the division of the unions, the concessions in the negotiation and the policy of fait accompli will allow it to impose a reform center in the program of the president of the Republic.
MORE INFORMATION
photo gallery of The protest in pictures Six keys on the reform of the pension Macron, The French, those eternal malcontents
more than 200 demonstrations yesterday in France, served to measure the resilience of a movement that, despite the erosion of time and its character numerically a minority, enjoys still of a wide sympathy with popular. It also maintains the ability to disrupt the daily life of the French people who live in metropolitan areas such as Paris and depend on the subway or the commuter train to travel to work.
The official figures reflect a decline in participants in the demonstration of yesterday in respect of the foregoing, on the 17th of December. That day they went out to the street, in all France, 615.000 protesters, according to the Ministry of the Interior. In the day yesterday were 452.000. The figures that gives the CGT union usually multiplied by two or by three the official, but it is significant that, with respect to the march in Paris, the official figure to match —it is even higher— the centre for independent Occurrence: 56.000 the first; 44.000 the second.
beyond the battle of numbers, the trend points to a slow down of the convening power of association, but insufficient in any case to deflate the movement. At the same time, the descending trend indicates the difficulties of the protest to add new supports and to be transformed into a mass movement. Macron and his prime minister, Édouard Philippe, believe that this gives them a clear advantage with respect to the strikes of 1995, which ended up forcing the Government to retreat from a similar reform.
47% of French have a positive opinion of the movement antirreforma and 35% negative, according to a poll Ifop. The support is considerable, but lower than that of other mobilizations similar to the past, such as the 1995 or the 2010.
The trade unions are divided. In the demonstrations has not participated in the reformist CFDT, the first of France. Unlike the CGT, the main organization opposing the reform, the CFDT does not ask for the complete withdrawal of the reform. Supports the basic idea —to merge in a single one of the 42 pension schemes current and to establish a new system of calculation— but disagree with another key point: the 64-year as age to collect the pension in full (the legal age of retirement is now 62 years of age).
The Government has made several concessions that will allow some professional sectors with long periods of transition to the new system, but to the point where all stranded are 64 years old. At the initiative of the CFDT, the Government has called for a meeting today with a view to the conclusion of a conference on the funding of pensions. This would allow to break off boasting, as you want the CFDT, the two legs of the reform. On the one hand, the systemic change of 42 regimes to one. On the other, the search for financial balance that would require to extend the retirement age, increase contributions or reduce the pension.
An agreement of the first minister Philippe, the leader of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, would not respond to the demands of the CGT and the unions who want the withdrawal of the project, but allowed unclog the pulse. The Council of Ministers intends to discuss the law on the 24 of January and submit it to the National Assembly from February 17 to be definitively approved before the summer.
36 days of strike action in the transport
The mobilization runs on a dual lane. On the one hand, the days of manifestation: the next fall morning on a Saturday, so the number of participants might increase. The other lane is the strike permanent and indefinite transport, which has affected mainly the capital and its region, and for the last 36 days: it has been maintained from the initial day of the protest, the 5th of December, although the follow-up has declined since then.
