Paris (EFE).- The French government has launched an offensive to convince the unions to sit down to negotiate on a series of “essential issues” such as purchasing power or public services, but excluding pensions, which are the that have caused the political and social crisis.
“The pension law is behind us,” said the government spokesman, Olivier Véran, on Monday in an interview with the BFMTV channel in which he recalled that once adopted, the Constitutional Council must rule on its validity in the next four weeks.
Véran, beyond acknowledging that for the unions to delay the current minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 with this law is “a red line”, he made an effort to emphasize that “this should not prevent us from talking about everything that matters to the French”.
For this reason, he was convinced that “in a few days or in a few weeks at the most, we are going to meet around a table” to discuss other issues such as salaries or professional retraining.
This conviction clashes with the plans of the union centrals, which this Tuesday are calling what will be their tenth day of mobilization against the pension reform, the second since the law was adopted by decree, with a constitutional mechanism, article 49.3, that prevented the Executive from submitting it to a vote in the Chamber of Deputies, where it did not have a sufficient majority.
It also clashes with the strikes that have been going on for weeks in public transport, in refineries, in the production of electricity or in garbage collection and with the risk that riots will take place again tomorrow outside the demonstrations, carried out by extremist groups .
But the government’s message is clear, and it was also repeated this morning by the Minister of Public Administration, Stanislas Guérini, who in another interview with CNews channel pointed out that now with the pension law “there is a continuation of the democratic process”, with review by the Constitutional Council.
“In parallel to that,” said Guérini, “we must meet again” with the unions and “talk about fundamental issues” such as “purchasing power” or “public services.”
The Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, who, as usual on Mondays, holds a meeting with the President, Emmanuel Macron, has declared that, except for budget texts, she will no longer resort to 49.3, which was the fuze that caused the protests against the pensions, until then massive but mostly peaceful, will degenerate into violence outside the unions.
Macron has also asked Borne to seek majorities, either with the right as up to now, or with the left, for the next texts that are presented to Parliament.