Thousands of workers carried out a national strike in France, after the government of Emmanuel Macron announced a plan to increase the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64. Schools, refineries and the transport service are the sectors most affected by the measure taken by national unions.
The first places to start mobilizing were the cities of Nantes and Nice, while the riot police began to organize in Paris with the aim of anticipating the protesters who would arrive in the afternoon. Several local owners boarded up the sales of their stores after the authorities of France warn of possible vandalism in the parts furthest away from the bulk of the population.
All local and regional trains have been almost completely paralyzed and public transport in the big cities is “very disrupted”, in addition to the high-speed lines that cross France they won’t work all day. For its part, the main teachers’ union indicated that 70% of primary school teachers joined the force measure and the majority of the workers of television channels and radio services also did so, a reason that forced many signals and stations to play old shows or music.
The main fear of the government It is that the protests carried out by the workers’ unions, and in some cases by high school students, become a second version of the fight he had with the “yellow vests” in 2018. Without going any further, in 2019 Macron tried to change the pension system of Francebut as a result there was the longest train stoppage in the nation’s history since May 1968.
The proposal
What the authorities propose France is to make changes to the pension system, one of the key promises throughout his re-election against Marine Le Pen. The idea would be to increase the minimum retirement age from 64 to 62 and add more years to those who want to receive a full pension.
Although the majority of the citizens of this country agree that a change is necessary in this environment, they feel that what was proposed is an “unfair” measure.