Paris (EFE).- The French unions criticized this Saturday what they consider an attitude of “provocation” of the Government of Emmanuel Macron, for continuing to not listen to the strong social rejection of his pension reform project, and asked the Executive not to ” play with fire” because the mobilizations are going to continue.
“What else is there to do?” Philippe Martínez, leader of the combative CGT, asked himself from the head of the demonstration that is preparing to tour Paris this afternoon, in what is being the seventh day of large national mobilizations against the Reform of the retirement system since January.
Martínez went further and pressed so that, if the Government is so sure that its initiative is necessary and is the only possible one, that it consult the citizens.
“Today the only thing we can say is: if (Macron) is so sure of himself, let him consult the French,” challenged the CGT leader, in response to the immovable stance adopted by the French president against the claims of the unions, which this week unsuccessfully asked to be received at the Élysée.
Fight without violence
“Those who run this country must stop this form of denial of the social movement,” stressed Laurent Berger, general secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT), also from the demonstration in the capital.
Berger also appealed for a consultation with the French and warned the Government that “by dint of playing with fire, nonsense is done.”
The unions indicated that today they expect a great day of protests, because the support for the social movement against the pension reform is, in the words of Martínez, “more than absolute.”
They also assured that, despite the fact that the parliamentary process of the project continues through an accelerated procedure, the battle is not yet lost.
In any case, the workers’ organizations plan to continue fighting in the streets, but without falling into “violence and radicalism,” Berger said.
The opposition tries to block the processing of the reform
The main axis of the reform promoted by Macron is to delay the minimum retirement age by two years, from the current 62 years to 64, something to which all the unions are strongly opposed.
The main argument of the Executive is to guarantee the financial balance of the system on the horizon of 2030, since, if nothing were done, it estimates that in ten years a deficit of close to 150,000 million euros would accumulate.
The bill is being debated in the Senate, where the Labor Minister, Olivier Dussopt, announced on Friday the use of a constitutional mechanism to bypass the hundreds of amendments that the opposition has presented with the intention of blocking the process, and forcing a vote on the whole text.
Specifically, the recourse to article 44.3 will allow that vote in the upper house – where the right has a majority – on a text that will only include the amendments proposed or accepted by the Executive.
In this way, the scenario in which the end of the term of the Senate would have been reached, on Sunday at midnight, by which the upper house would not have been able to pronounce on the reform, something that already happened in the National Assembly, is avoided. on the first reading.
The left-wing opposition has harshly criticized this measure, as well as the unions.