Josie is 84 years old and has arrived at the demonstration in Paris against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform by walking with her canes from the nearest open metro stop. On the journey on foot, about 40 minutes, she says that she recently celebrated her golden anniversary as a feminist. “I’ve been a militant for 50 years. I haven’t missed a single demonstration, I went to those for abortion, those for advances in the 70s and 80s, and now I go to all those against Macron’s reform,” she says.
Today is the second day of strike against the unpopular reform of the president to delay the retirement age from the current 62 years to 64. 70% of French oppose it. The Government has already made it clear that it is not going to give in. In this pulse, the French believe that they can make the government back down with street protests and blockades.
“I come here out of solidarity with the new generations, so as not to lose the achievements of the resistance that my generation has achieved,” explains this octogenarian protester, who worked for years as a secretary at the newspaper Le Monde. “Macron raises taxes for middle-class citizens and lowers them for the rich. He says he is from the center, but he is from the right!”, she protests.
Today’s demonstration in Paris started at two in the afternoon in the Plaza d’Italia in the direction of Les Invalides, along the Rive Gauche, the left bank of the Seine. According to the unions there are half a million demonstrators, a figure higher than that of January 19, the first day of the strike. So, in the more than 150 protests that took place in the different cities of France there were 1.2 million protesters. Unlike the march two weeks ago, in Paris there have been some incidents and the police have had to charge against the protesters and have fired tear gas. There are 23 detainees.
The unions wanted today to improve the numbers of participants to put pressure on the Government and try to get it to retouch its reform. Something that, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, reiterated today, is not going to happen. The essential thing, the retirement age at 64, is inalienable.
The project, which has already reached the Assembly, is deteriorating the image of the president, who is already viewed negatively by almost 70%, according to a survey published today. The liberal reforms that he has led since he came to power have earned him the reputation of “president of the rich.” In fact, the pensions postponed it because the Covid broke out. The Government justifies that this change is necessary to balance the system, since there are already more people collecting a pension than working to finance them. The IMF itself has valued it positively. France is one of the countries in Europe with the earliest retirement.
The general secretary of the CFDT union, Laurent Berger, pointed out that the demonstration in Paris is being more massive than the one on January 19. “Borne’s pension reform: Let her retire!” says one of the banners, referring to the prime minister, who is 61 years old. “Let him retire,” insists a man holding a banner depicting Macron as Napoleon.
Josie carries her multi-banner on her, where she has several slogans stapled with her reproaches to the president: pension reform, inequality between men and women and the need for a tax on the rich. He reminds her that he was only elected with 23% of the vote, in reference to the first round of the presidential elections, in which he was finally re-elected. “Fear is a bad adviser, people feared Le Pen and that’s why he won,” he says.
The protest in Paris is dominated by banners accusing Macron of enriching the rich: “80 billion profits from CAC 40 companies (the stock market index) and there is no money for pensions,” says one of the protesters. mottos . “The big businessmen get rich, let them pay the pensions!” Says another.
“They say you have to save, but they do it at the expense of public services,” says a teacher who marches along with several classmates. The other theme that predominates in the slogans is the one that implies that 64 years is already a late age. “We do not want to die working,” says the message carried by a Paris Airport worker, who demonstrates with several colleagues. Another protester carries a cardboard coffin on his back: RIP (unexpected and precarious retirement, in the French acronym).
The one in Paris is the most massive but they have also taken to the streets in Marseille, Nantes, Toulouse and more than a hundred cities. Interior expects 1.2 million protesters at most throughout France. If there have been fewer public workers on strike (one in four teachers, according to the government, and 36.5% of SNCF workers), between 75% and 100% of the staff at refineries and fuel depots TotalEnergies joined the strike, according to the CGT, reports EFE.
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