Unions dissatisfied with Macron’s answer

It was held this Saturday a new day of mobilization across France against the pension reform, which moves the minimum retirement age by two years, from the current 62 to 64. The day before, Emmanuel Macron responded to the letter sent to him by the trade unions with a request to receive them. The President of the Republic clearly said yes will not receive them and insisted that the time for dialogue had already arrived and thatnow is the time to debate the law in parliament. “The feeling the workers have is that their sleeves have been cut off,” said Laurent Berger, head of the reformist CFDT union, referring to Macron’s letter. He considers the head of state’s refusal to receive them “astounding” and asked “those who lead this country to get out of this form of denying the social movement.” CGT leader Philippe Martínez criticized Macron for limiting himself to explaining that his reform is good “when there are no more arguments” and challenged him to organize consultations with the country “if he is so sure of himself”. The executive’s main argument is guarantee the financial balance of the system on the horizon of 2030, since, if nothing is done, he estimates that in ten years a a deficit of about 150,000 million euros.

Debate in the Senate

According to a survey published by BFMTV, 82% of the French think that the French president should welcome the trade unions engage in reform, although the same number is convinced that despite the strong opposition of public opinion, the law will be approved and implemented. And this could perhaps be the reason why yesterday’s protests were less numerous, both in Paris and in other provincial cities.

After a strong mobilization on March 7, with the largest number of people on the streets to show their opposition to raising the retirement age to 64, the day did not meet the expectations of the organizers. The Paris procession was again interrupted by groups black block who staged scenes of violence. The police detained at least 26 people, and previously carried out 4,000 checks.

Senators, for their part, continue to debate reform, they did The deadline is this Sunday at midnightand the right, the majority, accelerated the discussions so that they could vote for it.