The government does not imagine a large mobilization this Saturday despite the call of a collective of “yellow vests and angry citizens”. Faced with pension reform and inflation, the macronie rather fears the creation of professional collectives that are difficult to anticipate.
A taste of skepticism. Three days before a call for mobilization for the yellow vests in Paris, the government does not envisage a return to the scale of the movement. It is rather the new collectives like those of SNCF controllers or general practitioners who worry Macronie.
“I do not believe in a takeover of a trademark already registered. They are ultra-minority and it will not take”, assures a ministerial adviser to BFMTV.
“Not the starting point”
This new rally in Paris launched by the Facebook group of “yellow vests and angry citizens” wants to protest against the pension reform which will be presented next week, inflation as well as the use of 49.3 10 times by the government.
This demonstration, which will start from the Place de Breteuil in the 7th arrondissement in Paris, does not seem to mobilize for the moment. On the various Facebook pages picking up the call, only a few hundred people said they would “take part” for sure.
This is not the first time that the yellow vests have tried to relaunch their mobilization, after having seriously shaken up the executive in 2018, without ever succeeding so far. This is enough to reassure the government, which has to deal with an inflammable social context, between price increases, unions fiercely opposed to the extension of the retirement age and the end of the rebate at the pump.
“Saturday, it will not be the powerful starting point”, still judges a minister.
“Very flammable” collectives
The prefecture of police does not show its side of particular concern at the approach of the day of mobilization. The executive, however, is much more attentive to the new forms of social movements that have escaped the unions in recent weeks.
Social tension, already high, went up a notch in December with the strike of the train managers of the SNCF, organized via a Facebook group, very far from the unions. The strike of general practitioners in recent weeks has taken place on its side under the aegis of a collective which claims to be apolitical. “We have to be careful,” warns a Macronist deputy.
“With the collectives, we have no interlocutors. It’s very inflammable. And therefore the aggregation of these collectives scares me more than the union mobilization. But it will not be the yellow vests”, further advances this elected.
Support for professionals in difficulty
Aware of this risk, the government has put the package on the bakers who will demonstrate in Paris on January 23rd. In great difficulty with the rise in energy prices, this profession has multiplied the SOS in recent weeks.
With some success: Elisabeth Borne announced on Tuesday the spreading of their taxes and their social security contributions. Bruno Le Maire will allow them to suspend their electricity contract in the event of a “prohibitive” price increase.
The president will be able to lean again at their bedside on the occasion of the galette des rois this Thursday at the Élysée. Bercy will exchange tomorrow with the restaurateurs. Enough to hope to control a social explosion that would escape government forecasts.
