A statement that risks throwing oil on the fire. On the eve of a new day of mobilization on Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron defended this Monday, January 30, a reform ” essential ” to “save our system” by distribution.
“Today, the reform as it is presented is no”: what if the right beat a retreat?
“This reform is essential when we compare ourselves in Europe and when we look at the need we collectively have to preserve and save our pay-as-you-go pension system”, he said at a press conference in The Hague.
Asked about the words of his Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who said this weekend that postponing the age was not “more negotiable”the Head of State assured: “When she says something, she says it with good reason and I support her”.
A day more followed than January 19?
The first day of demonstrations and strikes on January 19 saw between one and two million people, according to the sources, proclaim their opposition to this reform, which provides for a lowering of the legal age for retirement from 62 to 64 years and an acceleration of the lengthening of the contribution period.
The unions, rarely so united, hope to do at least as well on Tuesday for a rise in power of the movement. A hope reinforced by polls attesting to a growing rejection in public opinion.
The strike promises to be very popular at school and in transport. The teacher unions foresee 50% of strikers among teachers, from kindergarten to high school. Air France will cancel one in ten short and medium-haul flights, but long-haul routes will not be affected. In the Paris region, metro and RER traffic will be “very disturbed”according to the RATP.
Eleven thousand police and gendarmes will be mobilized throughout France on Tuesday, including 4,000 in Paris.
