Demonstrations against the pension reform, act 3. From the port of Le Havre to the streets of Marseille, opponents of the bill are remobilizing, this Tuesday, February 7, to maintain pressure on the executive but also on the deputies who come from open hostilities in the Hemicycle. United against the postponement of the legal age to 64, the eight main unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires, FSU) intend to continue to put pressure on the executive, after two days successful with more than a million demonstrators in the streets – according to the authorities.
Many demonstrations were held in the morning, while waiting for the departure at the beginning of the afternoon of that of Paris, between the place of the Opera and that of the Bastille. Before the start, the leader of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, called for the movement to be hardened with “harder, more massive, more numerous” strikes, because “if the government persists in not listening, inevitably it will be necessary to increase a notch”. It would be “a democratic madness to remain deaf” to the challenge of the reform, abounded at his side the leader of the CFDT, Laurent Berger.
With more than 200 rallies in the country, a security source anticipates a range of 900,000 to 1.1 million demonstrators, including 70,000 maximum in Paris. 11,000 police and gendarmes will be mobilized, including 4,000 in the capital. This is the same device as that deployed on January 31 during the previous day of action against the text. Philippe Martinez anticipates a mobilization close to that of January 19. But difficult to do as much as the 31st, which had gathered 1.27 million people according to the authorities and 2.5 million according to the unions, estimates Simon Duteil (Solidaires) for whom “we must take the week as a whole”, a new day of action being scheduled for Saturday.
The mobilization began this Tuesday morning in many metropolitan cities. In Toulouse, the police counted 23,000 demonstrators, 80,000 on the union side. In Orleans, the demonstrators were between 7,500 and 20,000 according to the sources. In Nice, there were between 7,000 and 20,000 demonstrators, according to estimates by law enforcement and unions. In Chateauroux, 6,500 people marched against the pension reform. In Marseille, there were 180,000 demonstrators at the start of the afternoon according to the CGT, slightly less than during previous mobilizations (205,000 people).
In the key transport sector, the circulation of trains and metros is “severely disrupted” at SNCF and RATP. In energy, the CGT claims a drop of around 4,500 MW in energy production, the equivalent of more than four nuclear reactors. More than one in two employees (56%) of TotalEnergies refineries are on strike according to management, between 75 and 100%, according to the CGT. The management of EDF lists 30.3% of strikers at the national level at midday, against 40.3% on January 31. At the Total refinery in La Mède (west of Marseille), the strike was launched for 48 hours. “No product leaves the site”, summarized Fabien Cros (CGT). The CGT Mines-Energie de Loire-Atlantique for its part claimed “Robin Hood” operations aimed at deactivating “about twenty” radars in the department.
The Ministry of Education lists 14.17% of striking teachers (against 25.92% on January 31), knowing that zone A is already on vacation. According to a police source, nine university sites and 24 high schools are disrupted in France, with 14 blockages. La Voix lycéenne claims nearly 150 blocked high schools.
“You cannot govern for very long against your own country”, warned Olivier Faure (PS), Sandrine Rousseau (EELV) affirming that the elected representatives of the left are “the continuation of this social movement within the Assembly”. As for the leader of LFI Jean-Luc Mélenchon, he called on Emmanuel Macron to become “reasonable”, accusing him of “wanting to start his five-year term with a coup de force”.
On the side of the majority, the elected Renaissance Marc Ferracci assures that the determination is “strong” and “will stay” to keep Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promise. “Still action is not allowed,” says the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, “open to improvements” on the text.
After the concessions granted on small pensions, then long careers, he spoke of a “progress report” in Parliament, before the presidential election of 2027. A new hand extended to the right, whose votes will be crucial to avoid resorting at 49-3. The examination of the text began Monday at the National Assembly in a stormy atmosphere. The government has set a deadline of February 17 for the examination of the text in the National Assembly, one of the doors of which has been tagged with messages hostile to the reform.
