With a fourteenth day of strikes and demonstrations planned by the inter-union, Tuesday, June 6, the movement against the pension reform now equals in number of days of action that, on the same theme, of 2010.

But the trade unions are cautious about the participation of employees in this new day of protest. “It will not be at the level of the highest mobilizations”, anticipates Céline Verzeletti, CGT confederal secretary. “There will be few strikers”, at least in National Education, recognizes Benoît Teste (FSU), referring to an “end of cycle”.

SNCF traffic will be “very slightly disrupted” with “nine out of ten trains” on average, and it will be “normal” in Ile-de-France across the entire RATP network. A third of flights will be canceled on departure from Paris-Orly.

If the inter-union claims not to “turn the page”, some seem to have recorded its defeat. “Of course the text will apply when the time comes,” CFDT secretary general Laurent Berger, who will leave office on June 21, said last week.

The authorities expect between 400,000 and 600,000 people at 250 assembly points, including 40,000 to 70,000 in the capital.

Constitutional tools

In Paris, the demonstration will leave the Invalides at 2 p.m. towards the Place d’Italie. The unions will hold their press briefing in front of the National Assembly, symbolically marking the link with the day of Thursday, during which a bill (PPL) from the centrist group Freedom, Independents, Overseas and Territories (LIOT) will be examined. aimed at repealing the reform.

The massive social mobilization, which on several occasions brought together more than a million demonstrators according to the police, was not enough to shake the executive, which used with the majority of all the constitutional tools at its disposal to pass his project. The first two decrees implementing the reform were published in the Official Journal on Sunday, including the one gradually raising the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 years old.

Thursday, the President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, should draw Article 40 of the Constitution – which prohibits parliamentarians from tabling amendments having the effect of reducing resources or increasing public charges – to declare inadmissible amendments aimed at restoring the key article of the LIOT bill, deleted in the law committee.

“If the government invokes Article 40, it will be a pure democratic scandal”, denounced, Sunday, the general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet. In a column published Monday in Le Monde, the left and LIOT deputies called on Ms. Braun-Pivet to let the PPL live, citing the risk of “increased anger and violence”.

The debate must be held “within a democratic framework and respect for the Constitution”, for his part affirmed the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, on the sidelines of a trip to Mont-Saint-Michel.

Attitude plus « offensive »

The intersyndicale, which did not plan to meet on Tuesday evening, has not yet announced its strategy in the event of failure of the PPL LIOT. “The follow-up will depend on the level of mobilization on Tuesday and the vote on June 8,” said Ms. Binet, assuring that “nothing is written in advance for the CGT”. The one who took over from Philippe Martinez said that her union would track down any “legal loophole” to attack the 31 decrees.

The president of the CFE-CGC, François Hommeril, also pointed out, on Monday, on France Inter “incoherent, poorly written” decrees, which could give rise to legal challenges. “We will remain in opposition to this law, and we will do whatever it takes to ensure that it does not apply,” he said.

Anxious to maintain its unity beyond the pension reform, the inter-union began to work on common proposals, moving from a “defensive” posture to a more “offensive” attitude, according to Simon Duteil (Solidaires). She broadened her protest slogan, calling for mobilization to “win[ing] the withdrawal of reform” and “obtain[ing] social progress”.

The government, for its part, plans to hold a multilateral meeting in mid-June, either at Matignon or at the Elysée, with the unions and employers. The country must “keep moving forward,” Macron said on Monday.