PARIS (AFP) – Tens of thousands of protesters turned against proposed pension reforms in France on Tuesday as a new nationwide strike disrupted public transport and schools, as well as electricity, oil and gas supplies in France. Participated in the third protest.
The protests came a day after French parliamentarians began debate on a pension bill that would raise the minimum pension from age 62 to 64. The law is President Emmanuel Macron’s flagship in his second term.
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in cities such as Nice, Marseille, Toulouse and Nantes, as well as Paris. Protesters in the French capital, many of them young, peacefully marched out of the Opera district with placards reading “Protect your pension” and “Tax millionaires, not grandmothers”.
France’s current pension system “is a democratic achievement in the sense that it is a French specialty that other countries envy,” said media worker Anissa Saudemont, 29, one of the protesters. Officials said an estimated 1.27 million people demonstrated last week, more than the first major day of protests on January 19. Further demonstrations are scheduled for Saturday, with eight unions calling on France’s largest.
Advisory cabinet chef Saad Kadioui, 37, who had to pass through a chaotic Paris train station on Tuesday, said he did not support a “tiresome” strike. There is,” he said. Kadiui said he supports the principles of pension reform but hopes the bill will be improved in parliament.
Power company EDF said the protests had resulted in a temporary reduction in power supply without causing blackouts. More than half of TotalEnergies refinery workers went on strike, the company said.
About 13% of teachers are on strike, down from last week’s days of protest, according to the Ministry of Education. School holidays were scheduled in one-third of French regions.
Macron has promised to push for changes despite polls showing growing resistance. The bill accelerates proposed measures that would require him to have worked for at least 43 years to be eligible for a full pension, raising the minimum retirement age in phases to 64 by 2030.
The government claims the changes are aimed at keeping the pension system financially intact.An aging population in France is expected to put the system in the red over the next decade. The parliamentary debates in Parliament and the Senate are expected to last for weeks.
Opposition lawmakers have proposed more than 20,000 amendments to the bill debated on Monday, most of them by the left-wing Knoops Coalition.
Mr Martinez said Mr Macron wanted to show that “he can push for reforms no matter what public opinion says or what citizens think”.
Several lawmakers from the far-right National Mobilization Party said they received voicemails during Monday’s debate and said their loved ones were hospitalized in an apparent ruse to force them to leave the rally. Le Pen said she will file a legal complaint.
CFDT union leader Laurent Berger also urged the government to “listen” to the crowds taking to the streets. “Social tensions can only be met through the exercise of democratic power,” he told French newspaper La Croix. Outrage over the pension system extended beyond heated debates in parliament. The Speaker of the House of Representatives National Assembly reported that the bill sparked anonymous voicemails, graffiti, and threatening letters to the chairman of the House’s Social Affairs Committee.
