French unions are not giving up the battle for pensions

French trade unions rule out that the battle against the pension reform is lost, despite last night’s adoption of an unpopular bill in the Senate, and warned of the Government’s “deafness” in the face of the growing “anger” of the world of work. “The game is not over,” he emphasized in an interview on BFMTV Laurent Berger, General Secretary of the French Democratic Labor Confederation (CFDT).

Berger, one of the union leaders leading the movement against pension reform (despite the fact that the CFDT supported reforms that were deemed necessary on other occasions), recalled that Wednesday will be a new national day of protest, which coincides with the discussion of the text in the joint joint committee of the Parliament. A strong mobilization will be needed that day, Berger said, to once again demonstrate the strength of social rejection of the reform. “I always call for reason (…) I believe that parliamentarians have a responsibility, when you are elected as a parliamentarian you have to represent the people,” he pointed out.

The head of the CFDT asserted that France is in a “democratic impasse” with three pillars: a large social movement of rejectionAnd “shocked” parliamentary process (refers to the mechanisms by which the Government accelerates discussions) i “refusal” executive to listen to President Emmanuel Macron.

“Yesterday we felt more anger,” warned Berger, referring to the protests that took to the streets for the seventh time this Saturday and which, although they were less massive than the previous ones, still represent the most important social protest movement “in the last fifty years”. trade unions state.

Avoiding deviating from his usual moderate tone, union leader considered “dangerous” a scenario in which the Government, if it does not find sufficient parliamentary support to confirm the reform in the National Assembly, resort to constitutional article 49.3 this allows him to approve the project without a vote, in exchange for being exposed to a motion of no confidence.

With the support of 195 senators and 112 votes againstthe French Senate approved late this Saturday the controversial pension reform project, with an expedited debate thanks to a procedure activated by the executive to avoid numerous amendments tabled by the opposition to disrupt the process.

The text will be debated again on the 15th in a joint joint committee to agree on a joint version which must then be confirmed by both houses, starting on 16 March.

In the National Assembly — which previously failed to vote on the entire project in first reading — the vote is expected to be very close despite the support of conservatives from Los Republicanas.

It is precisely over this key procedure that the shadow of Article 49.3 hangs over, which the Government has already used in this convocation on other occasions, since the macroist bloc does not have an absolute majority from those convocations in 2022.

The main backbone of the reform promoted by Macron is the postponement of the minimum retirement age by two years, from the current 62 to 64.