The week promises to be pivotal in France’s hard-fought pension reform, with two days of strong mobilization against the project ahead of its scrutiny by MPs and a front-line minister weakened by suspicions of favouritism.
• Also read: France: New day of massive strikes against pension reform
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne on Sunday took a step towards far-right LR MPs, whose votes are essential to vote for the reform.
“We will move by extending the long career system to those who started working between the ages of 20 and 21”, which will allow them “to leave at 63”, Ms Borne announced in the French Newspaper JDD without calling question cause the cardinal measure of the reform, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.
But that’s not enough for Pas-de-Calais LR MP Pierre-Henri Dumont, who wants “all those” who started paying contributions before the age of 21 to be affected.
However, LR’s support for the reform appeared to have been earned, as its key officials expressed satisfaction at having been heard by the government on 10 January.
Ms Borne also reassured Labor Minister Olivier Dussop, who is at the forefront of this bill, of all her “confidence” at a time when he is weakened by suspicions of “favoring” a public contract when he was mayor of Annonay, a small town in southern France.
President Emmanuel Macron’s camp has only a relative majority in the assembly. There is also the risk of internal defectors, some within the Renaissance macronist group itself. The presidential camp could be a dozen votes short of a final vote.
And unions remain adamant against raising the retirement age, which mobilized record numbers of protesters on January 19-31.
The development proposed by the Prime Minister on Sunday was described as a “patch” by Laurent Berger, general secretary of the CFDT, the first French trade union, on Radio France Inter.
Two new action days are planned, Tuesday and Saturday.
According to the transport companies SNCF and RATP, train traffic in France will again be “seriously disrupted” on Tuesday, as will the subways in Paris.
From security circles, the authorities expect between 900,000 and 1.1 million people on the streets on Tuesday, 70,000 of them in Paris.
And according to Mr. Berger, the highlight of this mobilization week will be Saturday 11 February.
The strikes are again likely to affect the energy and refinery sectors in particular, which have planned a work stop for Tuesday and Wednesday.
But the time has not yet come to block the economy, a strategy denounced for the time being by the reformist unions.