The mobilization continues against the pension reform but has run out of steam this Tuesday, March 28. The 10th day of mobilization was a little less followed than the previous one. Four key takeaways from the day.
The unions and the executive will talk to each other again. After a tenth day of action on Tuesday, the n.1 of the CFDT Laurent Berger revealed that the inter-union was invited at the beginning of next week to Matignon by Elisabeth Borne, ending weeks of absence of dialogue between the two parts.
When questioned, Matignon confirmed the invitation but made no comment on his agenda. “What is certain is that we will go and discuss pensions. And work because that goes with it, but (above all) pensions! insisted the leader of the CFDT.
The figures of the authorities are in decline: the Ministry of the Interior has identified 740,000 demonstrators throughout France, including 93,000 in Paris, the CGT “more than 2 million” including 450,000 in the capital. This is less than during the day of March 23, which had brought together a little more than a million French people, according to the ministry. Despite this declining mobilization, the inter-union called for a new day of mobilization on Thursday, April 6.
Tuesday, like last week, clashes between demonstrators and the police erupted in several cities while the violence around the basin of Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), during the weekend, was still in all heads.
In Paris, where 10,000 checks took place around the procession, a Leclerc business was looted and several trash can fires lit before clashes at the finish at Place de la Nation. Three hours after the end of the procession, the police pushed the last demonstrators back to the metro. The police headquarters reported at least 55 arrests.
Some sectors are still disturbed by the strikes against the pension reform. Train traffic was disrupted, with three out of five TGVs and one out of two TERs on average, according to the SNCF. In Paris, Lorient and Marseille, demonstrators invaded the railway tracks. The Eiffel Tower was also closed, like the Arc de Triomphe or the Palace of Versailles.
On the other hand, among Parisian garbage collectors, the CGT announced the suspension of the strike and the blocking of incinerators from Wednesday, while 6,600 tonnes of waste still litter the streets of the capital. If the teachers were less mobilized (8% of strikers according to the ministry), dozens of blockades of universities, high schools and even colleges have been identified, from Avignon to Le Havre, from Lille to Bordeaux.
The mobilization of young people, watched like milk on fire by the authorities, has also marked time: they were 400,000 in the street, according to the statements of the Unef, against 500,000 on March 23.
